


The everlasting struggle of Yamaguchi Tadashi's selfless spirit.

by amarillo (bloodspell)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - College/University, Eventual Smut, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Getting Together, M/M, Not Beta Read, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:48:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23551078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodspell/pseuds/amarillo
Summary: Yamaguchi glanced at Tsukishima but he was still boring his eyes into his food “Do you have someone to bring?” he asked, trying to keep his voice from showing just how much he hated the idea of Tsukki having a plus one. Instead of replying immediately, Tsukishima raised his head with a nervous look in his eyes and his bottom lip stuck between his teeth. They stared at each other for a few seconds while the cogs in Yamaguchi’s head turned trying to make sense of the conversation, of why Tsukki wasn’t replying, when it came to him.“Wai-”“Yamaguchi, please.” Tsukishima interrupted him, leaning over the table with a desperation in his voice that Yamaguchi hadn’t heard before.“Tsukki, I don’t-”“I don’t know why I lied to him, I shouldn’t have but I did and now I can’t take it back because it’ll be twice as pathetic than if I had just said I’m single. But now I’m in too deep and there’s no one else but you I can ask to do this. Please.”
Relationships: Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 44
Kudos: 126





	1. Papa don't preach.

“Just make sure to keep it clean and moisturized and it will be fully healed in three to four weeks.”

“Great, thank you for everything, bye!” Yamaguchi cheerfully waved at the woman behind the tattoo parlor’s counter as he and Tsukki exited the store.

His bicep was sore after two hours of tattooing but he was really happy with how it had turned out, this was first big tattoo, the other ones that he already had were mostly phrases and little symbols and drawings scattered all over his skin. He had finally managed to gather the courage to make the jump to something more complex, and at first he had been a little scared that the design he chose wouldn’t look as good on skin as it did on the paper, but all his fears melted away once he saw the beautiful crow covering the upper part of his arm, with its beak open in a silent scream and its majestic black wings contrasting against his freckled body. Yamaguchi was so excited that he was already planning his next tattoo, maybe he would get a full sleeve if he had the guts for it, who knows. 

Yamaguchi turned his head to look at Tsukki, who was walking beside him, looking at his phone, “Thanks for coming with me, Tsukki”.

Tsukishima looked up to his friend and nodded slightly “No problem”

“You must have been bored, just waiting for two hours while looking at me clench my teeth”.

“Well, I’ll admit that at first I accepted to come because I thought that if I caught you crying in pain in camera it would be good blackmailing material…”

“Mean!”

“...But you didn’t cry, not even a groan. You really are a tough guy, Yamaguchi, it’s not just your clothes.” Tsukishima commented with a teasing smile. He was just messing with him, Yamaguchi knew that, but he couldn’t help the little nervous laugh he let out.

Yamaguchi did dress like a “tough guy”, you could probably call it that. He loved tattoos (obviously), had more piercings on his face/ears than his mom would have liked and a decent percentage of his wardrobe was either black, leather or both. Honestly, if you showed a picture of how Yamaguchi looked now to the people he went to highschool with, they most probably wouldn’t recognize him. That guy? Yamaguchi? Little, wimpy, shy Yamaguchi? No way. Well, you can’t really blame him, the transition from highschool to college was somewhat cathartic to Yamaguchi, he had always wanted to look like this and he decided that there was no better time to make the change than the year he was going to be moving across the country to live in a new city, study at a new school, meet new people. It’s not like his personality did a 180º just because of a simple change of style (he was pretty much still a shy guy) but it surely did wonders for his self-confidence. 

Sometimes he wonders what Tsukki would have thought of 14 year old Yamaguchi if he had met him at the time. 

“It’s getting kinda late, maybe we could stop by the ramen place and get some takeout before going back.” Yamaguchi said after glancing at his watch.

“Sounds good”.

* * *

Inuoka sat down at the table of the cafeteria with the most life-defeated sigh a college student should be able to conjure. “I’m so not ready for the midterms”. 

“Retweet” “Same” Yamaguchi and Yachi muttered back at the same time, almost as if complaining about tests was some kind of standard, well-practiced form of greeting among them (it kind of was).

“Don’t you have like, two tests and that’s it?” Inuoka asked Yachi with an arched eyebrow.

“PLUS a 20 page essay on barroque art, and 4 projects to present by the 23rd! I’m dying over here!” Yachi exclaimed while swinging her almost-empty-coffee-filled water bottle in front of Inuoka.

“At least you don’t have to stay everyday until noon for lab practice! I’ve had it up to here with math, if I have to look at a single number ever again I will collapse!”

“I still have to stay in the studio to work on my projects!”

“But that actually sounds like fun!”

“It’s not after 3 hours when you have a massive headache because of the turpentine!!”

“GUYS!” Yamaguchi looked at his friends with an exasperated look, “Stop yelling, the both of you! People are staring,” he eyed at the girls sitting a couple tables over, who had turned around to look at what was going on at their table five screams ago “We get it, alright? We’re all stressed, Inuoka with his laboratories, Yachi with her turpentine and I get nightmares every night about ribosomal proteins and DNA processing. It’s midterm season, everyone is stressed!”

Yachi and Inuoka both looked at each other and then back at Yamaguchi with regretful eyes “Sorry, Yamaguchi” “Yeah, sorry, man”. 

Looking at the croissant Yamaguchi had in front of him, Inuoka seemed to remember that it was 1pm and he hadn’t eaten anything in 4 hours, he left his stuff at the table and left while saying something about a snack. Yachi took another sip of her coffee and sighed, resting her chin over her arms. “I really should have slept some more last night.”

“You should take better care of yourself, Yachi” Yamaguchi scolded her lightly, taking a sip from his own coffee.

Yachi turned her head to look at him, still laying over her arms on the table, and pouted “I’m trying, I’m not good at time management…” Yamaguchi looked at her over the coffee cup with an understanding look, “so, what else is going on with you? Apart from studying, I mean. Have you done anything fun lately?” she asked, trying to make some conversation that would keep them from focusing too much on the stress they were under. 

“Mmhm… Not really, I spend most of my time at the library these days…” Yamaguchi admitted looking down at his still untouched croissant “Well, I did get my new tattoo, did I show it to you yet?”

“No!” Yachi’s head perked up immediately, her eyes finally showing something else beside exhaustion, “I didn’t know you already had it done! It’s the crow design you showed us right? Can I see? Please?”

“What are we seeing?” Inuoka appeared just at the right moment with a bag of doritos, and sat down in front of Yamaguchi.

"Yamaguchi’s new tattoo!” Yachi exclaimed excited.

“The crow one? I didn’t know you already got it!” 

With Inuoka and Yachi’s interested eyes focused on him, Yamaguchi felt a little self-conscious about taking off his jacket, but he did anyway and turned to give them a good view of his arm. Yachi gasped and covered her mouth while Inuoka leaned over the table to get a closer look, “It looks so good, Yamaguchi” he said sounding genuinely impressed. “It’s so beautiful” Yachi commented quietly, “the lines are so clean, and the greyscale is so well done…” she raised her hand and made a motion to touch his arm but stopped herself “Ah, can I…?” Yamaguchi nodded “Sure”. Yachi grabbed his elbow and carefully moved his arm to see the rest of the tattoo that continued over his tricep. She raised her eyes to look at him and smiled after letting go “It looks amazing! Did it hurt a lot?”

Pulling his jacket back over his shoulders, Yamaguchi shook his head “Not really, I was ready for it to hurt a lot more than it actually did. Tsukki too, he said he wanted to see me cry in pain”.

“Tsukki went with you?” Inuoka asked, his lips curling into a grin.

“Yeah, I asked him and he accepted” replied Yamaguchi, with fake nonchalance.

“Oh…” murmured Yachi looking at Inuoka, “...that sounds…” he continued, “... kind of like a date” finished Yachi, already being fulminated under Yamaguchi’s glare. 

“It was not a date.”

“Aw, c’mon! What did you guys do afterwards?” Asked Inuoka before opening his doritos and taking one. 

“We got take out and went back to the dorm to have dinner while watching a movie” Yamaguchi replied, already feeling the heat on the back of his neck.

“So you basically went for a Netflix and chill.” Teased Inuoka with his mouth full of doritos, Yachi snickered at the comment while Yamaguchi buffed.

“Well, yeah, but that’s literally all we did, though! Watch some Netflix and chill. Literally.” He said, “...Sadly” he muttered a few seconds later under his breath.

“Come again?” Yachi said, having heard Yamaguchi’s last word perfectly but wanting to mess with him a little further

“Nothing! Drink your coffee!” Yamaguchi hissed finally, biting into his croissant just to get out of the conversation.

Yachi and Inuoka exchanged some glances, silently debating whether they should drop it or press a little further, the Tsukki topic was a slightly sensitive one but they were Yamaguchi’s friends and as so they should give advice. Inuoka decided to give his two cents once again. 

“I still think that you should ask this guy out directly, you’ve been crushing on him since forever! And you guys are close so there’s a chance he’s interested. And if he isn’t, he really doesn’t look like a douche so nothing should change between you two”. Yachi nodded along, giving her silent support to Inuoka’s words. But they had already been over this…

“You don’t know that, though. We live together, if I ask him out and he’s not interested things could turn very uncomfortable very quickly. I’m not ready for that.” Yamaguchi said, while still looking down at his food to avoid his friends’ eyes.

“But if he is you would get to date him, you know, the thing that you actually want to do.” Inuoka insisted. 

“Just leave it be, Inuoka” Yamaguchi replied, a little more cutting than he intended. 

Sensing the tense atmosphere that was starting to form, Yachi decided to intervene “Sorry, Yamaguchi, we don’t want to annoy you.” She said looking over at Inuoka, who nodded, “it’s just that we don’t understand how Tsukki would not want to date you, you know?” Yamaguchi couldn’t help but smile at that, still looking down at his already cold coffee as he stirred it.

“Yeah, specially after he saw you get that huge tattoo without batting an eye like a macho man” Yamaguchi actually snorted at Inuoka’s stupidity and threw him a piece of croissant playfully “He already knows that I’m a macho man, he knows about my impressive record of 12 push ups in a row”.

Inuoka threw half a dorito in his direction as a counter attack “If I was him I would be swooning.”

Yamaguchi chuckled and rested his head on his hand while looking at his friends, “and what about you guys? Have you done anything fun these days besides studying? Have you gone anywhere cool with Kiyoko lately, Yachi?

They stayed at the cafeteria and chatted for a while longer, about Yachi’s girlfriend’s obsession with antique stores and about which cake was better, red velvet or carrot cake (carrot cake was the definitive winner) before they had to go back to their respective classes and routines for the day.

* * *

Tsukishima was sitting down at his desk trying —and failing— to get the information in his notes to stay in his brain, when Yamaguchi walked through the door. “Hi” he said as he dragged his feet towards his bed before collapsing onto it and throwing his backpack somewhere next to his own desk chair. 

“Hi” Tsukishima answered.

None of them moved for a good ten seconds, Yamaguchi lying starfish position, staring at the ceiling and Tsukishima still staring at his notes, trying to intimidate them into letting themselves be memorized. The quiet was only perturbed by a rumbling sound coming from Yamaguchi’s guts. 

“Sorry” he murmured, a little bashfully; he propped himself on his elbows to look at Tsukishima “dinner?” Tsukishima let out a sigh, already coming to terms with the fact that he wasn’t going to get anything else done tonight. “Sure” he replied. 

Yamaguchi rose to his feet, while taking off his jacket, and threw it on top of his desk, before walking to the little kitchen of their shared room. “I’m starving, I haven’t eaten anything since 1 pm” he said as he rummaged in the cabinets for something edible. “It’s already 11 pm, how have you not died?” asked Tsukishima as he grabbed a water bottle from the fridge.

Yamaguchi found a couple of packets of instant ramen and showed them to Tsukishima, when the blonde nodded, he reached for a little pot to fill it with water. “I have no idea, I think my body is starting to feed off the sheer desperation to pass this semester”. 

Tsukishima huffed out a laugh and elbowed Yamaguchi lightly as he walked past him towards the little (minuscule) table at the side of the kitchen, “Still, I’m sure it would appreciate it if you had something with actual nutrients every once in a while”. 

Yamaguchi turned around to look at him while he waited for the water to boil “How was your day?”

Tsukishima fiddled with the lid of his bottle “Fine, one of the professors tried to show us a simulation to illustrate something but he had to log into the website and he accidentally wrote his password in the space for the e-mail. His password was papadontpreach18.”

With a snort, Yamaguchi turned around to put the noodles in the hot water “Well, he is a Madonna fan, that’s one more thing you know about him”. 

“Yes, maybe not the kind of thing I was expecting from my 64-year-old linguistics professor but it’s refreshing. He was so flustered when he realized we all saw it, it was hilarious”.

“The poor guy must have been so embarrassed. Now you guys can hack his account if you want, too.”

“It’s my chance to leak next friday’s exam.” Tsukishima commented as he stood up to grab a couple of bowls for them to use. Considering how little space there was in their kitchen, Yamaguchi couldn’t do much but shrink himself as Tsukishima stretched his long arm towards the highest shelf, feeling the blonde’s chest against his back and his heartbeat get faster against his ribs. 

After that millisecond of mild panic in Yamaguchi’s brain, Tsukki was gone and already sitting down at the table again, now with two bowls in front of him, as well as two pairs of chopsticks. After a few minutes, Yamaguchi took the pot and served the noodles before leaving it in the sink and sitting in front of Tsukishima. 

They ate in silence for a while, the both of them too caught up in their own stressful thoughts. It was Tsukishima who broke the silence.

“My parents called.” He stated, simply.

Yamaguchi looked at him with his mouth full, waiting for him to elaborate. 

“They said my cousin Minako is getting married this april.”

Yamaguchi had to swallow and take a sip of water before he could answer “Tsukki, that’s great! Are you going to the wedding?” 

“Well, she invited me so it would be rude not to and she is one of the few nice cousins I have. So yes.”

Yamaguchi smiled, trying to make up for Tsukishima’s lack of enthusiasm a little bit, “Good, I’m sure you’ll have fun with your family.”

The blonde just hummed and dig back into his food, so Yamaguchi naturally thought that was the end of the conversation. However, a few moments later, Tsukishima talked again.

“My other cousin also called.”

Again, Yamaguchi waited for him to elaborate.

“He’s also one of my cousins from my dad’s side so he is also going to the wedding.” For some reason, Tsukishima seemed tense, Yamaguchi noted. “He’s one of the not so nice ones.”

“How so?”

“He is just an asshole. Ever since we were kids he’s always tried to antagonize me for some reason. We spent a lot of time together back then because we both lived in Miyagi growing up, so we would be together every summer and basically every holiday. I have memories of us trying to compete over absolutely everything, we drove Akiteru crazy because he was usually the one in charge of us.” Yamaguchi couldn’t help but feel sympathetic for poor Akiteru, stuck between child Tsukki’s bad temper and his cousin’s, which he was sure wasn’t any better. “The thing is that he still tries to compete with me now, over who got into the better university, I won that one; over who got his driving licence first, he won that one…” Tsukishima sighed, Yamaguchi was still trying to figure out where exactly he was going with all of this, because he had a feeling Tsukki wasn’t telling him this just because. 

“So he calls me and asks me if I’m going to go to the wedding and who I’m going with. He has a girlfriend, a beautiful one at that, he’s brought her along for family meetings before and absolutely everyone loves her, including my grandma who is like the most judgemental woman you’ll ever meet. She’s also studying to be a doctor and does charity helping kids with disabilities, so she’s basically like an angel fallen from heaven” Judging by how Tsukishima was spitting out his words he didn’t look exactly pleased that his cousin had found such a good person to be with. “The fucker knows he’s winning in the dating department because what he said was basically along the lines of _Are you going to bring someone to the wedding? Or are you single like you were last year and the year before that?_ ” He said with a mocking voice, looking down at his noodles like he could see his annoying cousin's face in the bowl. Yamaguchi laughed quietly at Tsukishima’s outburst, it wasn’t everyday that he lost his nerves like this.

“So I told him I was bringing someone.”

Wait.

Someone? Who?

Yamaguchi glanced at Tsukishima but he was still boring his eyes into his food “Do you have someone to bring?” he asked, trying to keep his voice from showing just how much he hated the idea of Tsukki having a plus one. Instead of replying immediately, Tsukishima raised his head with a nervous look in his eyes and his bottom lip stuck between his teeth. They stared at each other for a few seconds while the cogs in Yamaguchi’s head turned trying to make sense of the conversation, of why Tsukki wasn’t replying, when it came to him.

“Wai-”

“Yamaguchi, please.” Tsukishima interrupted him, leaning over the table with a desperation in his voice that Yamaguchi hadn’t heard before.

“Tsukki, I don’t-”

“I don’t know why I lied to him, I shouldn’t have but I did and now I can’t take it back because it’ll be twice as pathetic than if I had just said I’m single. But now I’m in too deep and there’s no one else but you I can ask to do this. Please.”

Yamaguchi was ready to decline, this was way too much; yes, they were friends and yes, Yamaguchi was someone with a selfless spirit that didn’t think twice about doing favors for his friends, and YES, maybe he would think even less about doing Tsukki a favor because of his massive crush but this was going too far, this is where he drew the line-— Wait a second. No one else? The first and only person Tsukki had thought of for the role of his (fake) boyfriend was him?

Well, maybe...

Maybe, in that case…

Yamaguchi chewed on his bottom lip for a second while he looked at Tsukki’s imploring eyes “...Fine” he sighed. “When did you say the wedding was?”

Tsukishima let out the breath he was holding and put his hand over his chest with an honest look “Thank you, Yamaguchi, you’re saving my ass. I owe you big time.” Yamaguchi just made a dismissive gesture with his hand, “It’s the 21st of April”.

“So a month from now, more or less.”

“Yes, I assume you’ll be done with your midterms by then?”

Oops, Yamaguchi hadn’t thought of that. He did some mental gymnastics trying to remember the date of his last exam, he was pretty sure it was the 16th, so they should be in the clear, “Yes”.

“Great, perfect, me too.” Tsukishima said looking more relieved by the second, “the wedding is in Shizuoka so we’ll need to take the train, everything is on me, obviously, you’re doing enough as it is.”

“Okay” Yamaguchi replied simply, he wasn’t annoyed about having to do this, but he didn’t really know how he felt, either. He was doing it to help a friend but at the same time he knew that it was going to be hard for him to just pretend to date Tsukki, specially in front of his family. It was like being offered a taste test of what he was actually missing on, and he didn’t know if he wanted it. But he had already accepted.

“Also… There’s one more thing.” Tsukishima said quietly.

Oh my God, “What thing?” Yamaguchi asked raising an eyebrow.

“The wedding is on a monday but my cousin, not the one getting married, the annoying one, is going to be coming over on friday. Well, not over exactly because he isn’t staying here, God forbid, but he apparently has a friend in campus so he’s staying with him. He said that way we can all go to the wedding together. So... yeah.”

So that was another three days of pretending, at least when Tsukishima’s cousin was around. Great, if Yamaguchi didn’t at least get nominated for an Oscar after this he was going to be filing a complaint to the Academy. 

“Alright.” He answered, pretending like he wasn’t already panicking about the whole ordeal. He looked at Tsukishima and saw him looking back at him a little nervously, like he was trying to figure out whether or not Yamaguchi was mad at him for asking so much of him, Yamaguchi gave him a tiny smile to reassure him that wasn’t the case.

“Okay. Thank you for doing this, Yamaguchi, really.”

Yamaguchi just waved his hand and tried to brush it off, “Don’t worry about it, I’m just helping, that’s what friends are for, right?”

Well.

This should be fun.

* * *

Midterm season was as asphyxiating as ever. After more than three weeks of pulling all-nighters before every exam, spending endless hours at the library and consuming more coffee than should be humanly possible, Yamaguchi finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. He finally had done his microbiology test this morning and that marked the end of his suffering, at least until finals came and brought a brand new kind of suffering with them.

The subway station was buzzing with activity, Yamaguchi had to pay close attention to avoid colliding with any of the frenetic commuters that walked past him with their eyes on every screen, checking for the next train’s hour of departure. This kind of situation had overwhelmed him a little bit when he first moved to Tokyo, but after the first year he had become fairly accustomed to the big city’s constant crowds and quick activity, even if he wasn’t really a fan of it. At least he didn’t have to wait too much for his train, since it came not even a couple minutes after he arrived on the platform. 

The train wasn’t very full, only a few people here and there, most of them either checking their phones or reading. He took a seat as the train left the station and he leaned back, looking at his own reflection in the window in front of him.

Today had been a very tiring day and we couldn’t wait to get back home and sleep for 10 whole hours; the test he took this morning had been the last one of his exams so even if he was exhausted and had plenty of sleep to catch up to after this crazy month, he had agreed to meet Yachi and Inuoka at a bar to celebrate their freedom with beer. They had been there for a good three hours just laughing, drinking and chatting about everything but college, they had also half made fun of him, half scolded him about accepting Tsukki’s fake boyfriend request and this time Yamaguchi had just accepted it, he had already tried to defend himself enough a month ago when he first told them the story. He still remembers their shocked faces and the way the cafeteria lady gave them the stink eye —again— for screaming, _“He asked you to do WHAT??” “And you ACCEPTED???”._

This time they had been a little bit more benevolent with him, though, as Yachi had said it’s just that they were worried about him, after all it was a tricky situation and they didn’t want him to come out of it with his feelings hurt, Yamaguchi had promised that that would not be the case but he wasn’t very sure of it himself, if he was being honest. It’s not that he regretted having accepted because, who was he trying to fool, a few days of _pretending_ to be Tsukki’s boyfriend was better than nothing at all, which was what he had right now; but, at the same time, the more sensible, emotionally intelligent part of his brain was already warning him about not getting to engrossed in the fantasy if he didn’t want to end up with his heart broken when it was over.

Either way, it was too late to back up now, since the wedding was next week and Tsukki had already booked them a train to Shizuoka as well a room to spend the night, since the wedding would probably end late and they weren’t too excited about the idea of a three hour trip back home on the same day. Yamaguchi had tried in every possible way to convince Tsukki to let him pay at least part of the room, but Tsukki had refused over and over again and wouldn’t listen to reason.

Being lost in thought as he was, Yamaguchi was a little startled when he heard a robotic voice announce his stop over the [music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjZ0dNCHR5U) playing in his earphones . He got up from his seat and got out of the train as soon as it stopped. The walk from the station to their student dorm wasn’t very long but he enjoyed being able to just walk without having to worry about getting back home as soon as possible to continue studying, or make a late dinner or just collapse on his bed. With his hands buried in the pockets of his jacket he just enjoyed the weather, which was specially good that day, as he walked towards the dorm. 

When he got there, Tsukishima was laying on bed with his laptop over his chest and the hood of his sweatshirt over his head. Yamaguchi thought that if a sculptor ever wanted to do a statue representing the average college kid, Tsukki right now would be the perfect model for it but he didn’t say it, “Hey there” was what came out instead.

Tsukishima apparently hadn’t heard the door because his head snapped in Yamaguchi’s direction when he heard his voice and seemed surprised to see him there “Oh, hi. Didn’t see you there”.

Yamaguchi left his shoes by the door and took of his jacket “What are you watching?”, he asked before sitting down on his bed. 

“Queer eye. I discovered it yesterday scrolling through Netflix and I’m obsessed.” He answered without tearing his eyes from the screen. 

“What is it about?”

It’s a makeover show with five gay guys that basically solve everyone’s lives. Every episode is the same but I just can’t stop watching it.” He sounded almost frustrated and that made Yamaguchi chuckle.

He looked at the hour, 5-ish pm, he had the entire evening and he didn’t really know how to spend it, maybe he could read a book or watch a show like Tsukki…

“Hey” a voice interrupted his thoughts. Yamaguchi looked at his roommate on the other bed and hummed.

“The wedding is next week” Tsukki had taken off his headphones. “Yes, I know” Yamaguchi replied. 

“Are you… still in?” He carefully asked, Tsukki was giving him an out, Yamaguchi understood, even if it was a little last minute. He pondered for a moment what he had been thinking in the train and everything his friends had told him; he could see Tsukishima’s eyes grow more and more anxious with each passing second. “Yeah” and Tsukki’s repressed sigh of relief was almost audible. “Okay, I just… This morning I was thinking… Do you have clothes? Like, wedding appropriate clothes.”

Yamaguchi’s brain froze at that. Shit. He hadn’t even thought of buying anything and as he quickly went over his wardrobe in his head he realized he had nothing he could possibly wear to a wedding. He worried his lip between his teeth and looked at Tsukki “I don’t think so.”

“Alright, it’s fine, I don’t either. I just realized today” he replied, sensing Yamaguchi’s worry. “I was thinking that tomorrow we could go buy something, just to, you know, not appear in front of my cousin with a pair of ripped jeans” he gestured to Yamaguchi “and a ten-year-old hoodie” and then to himself. 

The other boy smiled and nodded “Sure, I would want to look fancy in front of your family.”

Tsukishima snorted and turned to the screen of his laptop. After a few seconds he looked back at Yamaguchi, “wanna watch Queer eye?”

With a shrug, Yamaguchi stood up from his bed and went to lay next to Tsukki who scooted back a bit to make space.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! This is the first fic I've written in a long, long time so I'm excited about being back in bussiness. Thank you so much for reading the first chapter, I'd love it if you told me what you think in the comments.  
> See you in the next one!


	2. The french tuck maketh the man.

The next day, Yamaguchi waited for Tsukishima in front of Shibuya’s train station, they had agreed to meet there since Tsukki had an exam revision with one his professors and he didn’t go back to the dorm for lunch.

He was just mindlessly scrolling through his phone when he felt someone standing beside him and looked up to see Tsukki’s tall frame with his bag over his shoulder looking back at him. “Hi, Tsukki” he greeted him with a smile as he took out his earphones.

“Hi” Tsukishima replied as he started walking down the street.  
“What stores are we going to? I have no idea where to buy wedding clothes,” Yamaguchi asked as he took a couple long strides to catch up with Tsukki’s long steps.

“I looked up a few online, hopefully we’ll find something cheap, my budget is limited” Yamaguchi almost tried to argue again and say that he could pay for his own clothes, but decided to save that, at least for now.

The first store they tried was a total failure, they looked around for a few minutes but they didn’t even take anything into the fitting rooms since nothing on the racks really caught their eye. After roaming around the store for a while with no success and declining the cashier’s offers to help they decided to leave.

“Everything in there looked like something my 97 year old great uncle would wear” muttered Tsukishima as they walked out.

“Right? Like yes, I want to look elegant but I would rather not be mistaken for the corpse in an open casket funeral.” Yamaguchi commented, Tsukki’s chuckle made his heart flutter in his chest.

They wandered through some narrow streets before finding the second store, which looked way too fancy to be located in the dark alley it was. Tsukishima opened the door and held it for Yamaguchi before stepping in. The inside of the place was even more impressive than the outside, the ceilings were much higher than one would think before entering, the walls were covered in an elegant grey and white wallpaper, the racks were painted silver and even the mirrors that were scattered around the room looked expensive. Yamaguchi had the feeling whatever they found here was going to be way above their student budget.

This time, the cashier was behind the counter typing something into the computer and she paid no mind to either of them as they scanned the racks for an outfit. After a few minutes, Tsukishima walked over to Yamaguchi with something in his arms.

“Hey, we don’t need to match, right?” he asked.

Yamaguchi tore his eyes from the shirts he was checking out to look at Tsukishima “I hadn’t thought about that, I don’t think we do, though. Why?”

“I found this but if I buy it I don’t think you’ll want to wear one like this”, he showed him the suit he had found, it was a light grey with a soft fabric, it also came with a white shirt and a pale pink tie. It looked very nice and just the mental picture of Tsukki wearing that made Yamaguchi want to sigh dreamily, but he was right, it wasn’t something Yamaguchi himself would wear.

“I think it’s fine if we’re not matching, it’s not like we’re the ones getting married, anyway.” He stuttered a little bit over those last words but quickly cleared his throat, “It looks good, you should try it on.”

Tsukishima nodded and went into the fitting room, the only one in the store, to change. As he waited for him, Yamaguchi looked around the store for a few more minutes but with no luck. Everything seemed just a tad too fancy, he wanted something more simple. He wasn’t very comfortable wearing this kind of formal clothing, as he was rarely invited to events like this (his family wasn’t nearly as big as Tsukki’s so this kind of celebrations weren’t frequent, he had been to a wedding once before and he was 3 at the time). But even if he had to adapt and wear something that he usually wouldn’t wear he would like it to be at least something that wouldn’t make him feel even more out of place at the wedding.

He turned around when he heard the door of the fitting room open and, even at the risk of sounding like an overdramatic middle-aged woman, he suddenly felt the need to lay down. A very soft “Wow…” escaped his lips before he could stop it. Tsukki looked… Well, even better than he usually did, and that was saying something. The suit fitted him like a glove, it accentuated his lean form, making his shoulders appear just a bit broader and tightening around his waist perfectly, while the shape of the pants made his already long legs look endless. The soft colours of the outfit also complimented Tsukishima’s pale skin and blonde hair beautifully, making him look like a picture taken out of Yamaguchi’s best dreams.

“Yamaguchi? What do you think?” Tsukki’s voice yanked him out of his thoughts.

“Great!” he yelped before realizing he maybe sounded a bit too enthusiastic, “you look very good, Tsukki, really.” He took a couple steps forward to stand closer to the blond, who was checking himself in the mirror.

“You think so? Doesn’t it look a bit… cheesy?” Tsukishima asked while turning trying to take a look at how it fitted on the back. Yamaguchi almost salivated at the sight of his butt in those perfect pants, but managed to catch himself and stop ogling his friend.

“Not at all, I think it’s perfect for a wedding.”

“Even the tie?” Tsukki didn’t look too convinced yet, still staring at himself.

“Yes, the colour is very pretty and it compliments your skin” the naturalness with which those words left his mouth surprised even Yamaguchi.

Tsukki laughed and looked at him with an eyebrow raised through the mirror “Alright, Tan, should I try a french tuck with the shirt too?”

Yamaguchi chuckled a little embarrassed and punched Tsukki’s arm lightly, “Shut up” he gave him one last glance from top to bottom before looking back at his eyes “You look really good, Tsukki. How much is it?”

“6500 yen the whole outfit.”

“It’s not too expensive.”

Tsukki just hummed and stared at himself from a few more angles before sighing and nodding, “Yeah, I think I’m going to get it. I don’t want to have to keep looking, anyway. Thanks, Yamaguchi.” And before Yamaguchi could answer, he walked back into the fitting room and closed the door.

After paying the cashier, who was still very much indifferent to their presence there, they left the store, Tsukki carrying a paper bag in his left hand.

Now they only needed to find something for Yamaguchi, and hopefully it wouldn’t take them too much time, not that he would complain if it did, though. He knew this didn't count as a date but he was always happy to spend some time with Tsukki, and lately he hadn’t had many opportunities to do so, apart from, well, whenever they saw each other at the dorm to either sleep or eat.

The third store they went to was the last one of the ones Tsukki had looked up online but it was also unimpressive, they saw a couple things but after trying them on, Yamaguchi had been so disappointed about how they looked on him that he hadn’t even come out of the fitting room to show Tsukki, insisting that they they should just keep looking.

After walking for a few minutes, they found a store in one of the big streets that had a flashy sign that said “SALE”. Lured in by the idea of finding something inexpensive Yamaguchi could wear, they entered the store. This time the cashier was an old looking man, who was standing behind the counter and scribbling something in a notepad, he welcomed them with a warm smile when he saw them by the door and continued writing away in his notes.

They only had male clothing, in varying degrees of elegance, though Yamaguchi didn’t think he could ever wear any of the clothes they sold to go anywhere less formal than a business meeting. They went straight for the racks that had the sale sign over them and started to search for an outfit.

When Yamaguchi was starting to lose hope, Tsukki grabbed something and turned to him “What about this?” He showed him a black vest and a pair of black pants, all of it in the same fabric that had the faintest satin shimmer and checkered print that you could only see if you were up close. “It would look good with a white shirt and a black tie.”

It was a definitely the kind of pretty and simple outfit that Yamaguchi had been looking for, so he agreed as he took it from Tsukki’s hands and they started to look for a shirt.

Once they had everything, Yamaguchi stepped into one of the fitting rooms and started to change. After buttoning the pants he decided he already liked this one way better than the ones they had seen in the previous store, and after putting on the vest and the tie, he confirmed that thought. This fitted him a lot better, everything was his size, the fabric didn’t make any weird creases and he liked the shape the vest gave his torso. He would even say he felt attractive with this outfit. When he had looked at himself from every angle and fixed his hair like a nervous highschooler, he opened the door to show it to Tsukki, who had been waiting outside.

Tsukishima’s eyes went wide for a second, or maybe Yamaguchi just imagined it. He just looked at Yamaguchi until the latter started to feel a little self conscious, not understanding why Tsukki wasn’t reacting. “Tsukki?”

The blond seemed to remember there was a head attached to the body he was staring at and hurried to look at Yamaguchi’s face; his ears looked a little pink but Yamaguchi could be imagining that too. “You look amazing.” He stated simply.

His boldness took Yamaguchi by surprised and he stuttered “T-Thanks, Tsukki. I was kind of nervous it wouldn’t fit.”

Tsukishima hugged the jacket he was holding closer to his chest and shook his head “It looks like the perfect size to me, turn around?”

Yamaguchi did as he was told and slowly spun around to give Tsukki a full look, yet when he came back to his original position he found Tsukishima with a satisfied smile plastered to his face, “Yes, it fits.” Now it was Yamaguchi the one who could feel his ears burning “Oh, alright then, I’m… uh. I’ll just change back, give me a second!” He said, smooth as ever before shutting the door of the fitting room way too quickly. Did Tsukishima just check him out or was he already losing his mind?

While he was changing back into his clothes, Yamaguchi remembered, almost as an afterthought, to check the price tag; luckily the sale sign hadn’t lied and the outfit was affordable, not necessarily a bargain but he could pay for it.

He came out of the fitting room with his new attire over his arm and they walked over to the counter where the old man had put away his notebook and was already waiting for them with a grin “Found what you were looking for?” he asked with the tone of someone that had encountered many difficult clients before.

Luckily, Yamaguchi wasn’t one of them, “Yes” he replied, returning the smile as he handed him the outfit. While the cashier was busy scanning each garment, Yamaguchi saw Tsukki reach for his wallet, he quickly reacted and grabbed his arm “Tsukki, no, there’s no way I’m letting you pay for my clothes too.”

Tsukishima almost looked offended and pulled until Yamaguchi let go of his arm “Of course I’m paying for it, I already told you, you’re doing enough as it is.”

“I’m doing this because I want to help you, and you already paid for the train and the hotel room. Let me at least buy my own outfit, it’s not even that expensive.”

“Exactly, it’s not that expensive so I’m paying for it.”

“Tsukki.” He tried to sound convincing, and failed.

“Yamaguchi.” Leave it to the blonde to be uselessly stubborn over the most stupid things.

The cashier kept glancing between them, clearly trying to decide whether he should step in the conversation or just wait for someone, anyone, to pay him. Yamaguchi almost felt bad for the poor man getting caught up in their discussion but there was no way he was letting Tsukki win this argument. He had already made up his mind so when Tsukki decided to transform this into a staring contest, he stood his ground, not letting his friend’s killer glare intimidate him and, thankfully, after a few seconds, it was Tsukishima who let out an annoyed sigh and turned his head to look the opposite way, “Okay, do whatever you want.”

With a satisfied smirk, Yamaguchi took a few notes out of his wallet and payed the relieved cashier before grabbing the plastic bag he was handing him, “Thank you very much”, he said with an extra grateful tone just to tease Tsukki even further. It worked, if the blonde’s indignant puff was anything to go by.

After walking out of the store, Tsukki was still sulking so Yamaguchi put his hand on his shoulder and tried to console him “Tell you what, how about we go grab some coffee and I let you pay for that?”

“I’m not a kid you need to please after a tantrum, Yamaguchi.” Tsukki’s eyes looked just as menacing as he sounded, and it made Yamaguchi almost quiver but he powered through.

“Yeah, I know that, but I also know a very nice cafe around here and they have the best strawberry shortcake I’ve ever had.”

“... Fine.”

* * *

Two days later, Yamaguchi was sitting on his bed watching a usually collected Tsukishima walk around their room going full panic mode as he went over through everything that needed to go just according to plan for the next few days.

“When he knocks we both should go open up the door, or wait, no, delete that, he will think that we’re one of those annoying couples that do everything together, I should open the door and you just stay where you are.”

“Alright.”

“And then I introduce you, should I say you’re my boyfriend? Or like, my lover? God, no that, sounds way too intense, my partner? No, that sounds like we’re starting a local business together. I think boyfriend is the best option.”

“Okay.”

“Should we hold hands or something while he’s here? Is that too cheesy? Do couples even do that anymore? Jesus, I’ve forgotten every basic thing I knew about PDA.”

Yamaguchi decided he needed to intervene.

“Tsukki,” a pair of wide eyes snapped around to look at him with the most terror Yamaguchi had seen on Tsukki’s face to date. “Calm. Down. Everything is going to be fine, how are you so nervous? It’s just your cousin!” Yamaguchi couldn’t believe he had to be the voice of reason in this situation, how was it even possible for him to be the most calm of the two right now? He was the one who was about to spend the next four days pretending to date his crush of years in front of the said crush’s family, for God’s sake!

“You don’t know him! I just know he’ll end up getting under my skin, and I’ll fuck something up and then he’ll notice.” He exclaimed, at least he had stopped pacing.

Yamaguchi got up from his bed and walked up to Tsukki to grab him by the shoulders that were so tense that he could have sworn he was holding stone, “Listen, Tsukki, it’s okay! You’re the smartest guy I know, I’m sure you won’t fuck anything up, alright? We’ve been living together for two years now, we know each other well enough to pull this off for a few days. You just need to calm down because right now you’re freaking me out!” That seemed to work since Tsukishima stopped fidgeting and listened intently to every word Yamaguchi said, like he desperately needed to believe them. He took a deep breath and pushed his glasses up.

“You’re right, you’re right, I don’t know why I’m acting like this, I’m sorry.”

Just as Yamaguchi was about to say that there was no need to apologize, he was interrupted by a knock on the door that made Tsukishima almost jump out of his own skin. They looked at each other and Yamaguchi tried to give Tsukishima the most reassuring look he could before he went to open the door (and Yamaguchi stayed behind, because they didn’t want to look like one of those couples that do everything together).

Tsukishima slowly opened the door and Yamaguchi heard a loud voice come from behind it “Hey there, Kei! Long time no see!”

The door opened all the way, revealing a young man, around their age with blond hair in an undercut and a cocky smirk. “Hi, Yuuji, is good to see you.” Tsukishima greeted him with a monotone voice that made it very clear that “good” wasn’t exactly the word he was thinking of.

The boy, Yuuji, casted his eyes around the room, or what he could see of it from behind Tsukishima, since his cousin hadn’t yet made the slightest move to let him in. He spotted Yamaguchi at the back and that apparently was his cue to invite himself in as he just walked past Tsukishima to go and greet Yamaguchi, leaving the blond to close the door and question every choice he had made up until this point.

“Hello! You must be the boyfriend!” Yuuji exclaimed cheerfully extending his hand towards Yamaguchi “I’m his cousin, Terushima Yuuji”.

Yamaguchi shook his hand, returning the blinding smile Terushima was shooting his way, “Hi, it’s great to meet you, I’m Yamaguchi Tadashi.” Well, he seemed like a perfectly friendly guy, so far, he should’ve assumed that Tsukki was over exaggerating when he talked about how terrible his cousin was, he had a tendency to do that.

Terushima turned around to Tsukki who had finally decided to join them and threw an arm around his shoulders with no little difficulty due to their height difference “Hey now, Tsukki, you didn’t tell me he was this cute!” he laughed pointing at Yamaguchi who giggled, a little shy “I didn’t know you were into punk guys, look at those piercings! Does your mum know you date a bad boy?” he continued, winking at Yamaguchi with a knowing smile before tugging a little more at Tsukki’s neck, who was already crouching down a little.

“Well, you got a tongue piercing when you were what? Fifteen? And didn’t get disowned, so I think we’re in the clear.” Tsukishima shoved at his cousin to free himself, looking like a disgruntled cat about to hiss, Terushima paid him no mind and talked to Yamaguchi instead.

“Anyway, you manage to deal with him on the daily? Sexy times must be difficult, considering Kei was born with a giant stick up his ass.” Yamaguchi almost choked on his own spit upon hearing that.

“YUUJI, WHAT THE FUCK.” Tsukki was no better, his face was about as burning red as Yamaguchi felt his, Yuuji, on the other hand, seemed to find his own comment hilarious judging by the way he cackled as he punched Tsukishima lightly on the shoulder “I’m joking, I’m just joking, geez!” Yamaguchi’s brain was still trying and failing to reconnect. Scratch what he just said about Yuuji seeming friendly, maybe Tsukki was right after all.

With a huff, Tsukishima gathered himself and shot a glare at his cousin “Weren’t you just stopping by to say hi?” he snarled, “Well, you said hi, we all did. You can leave now.”

“Jesus, Tsukki we haven’t seen each other in like almost a year, I come to your house, well, room, to see you like a good cousin and not only you don’t offer me anything to drink, but you try to kick me out after two minutes!” Terushima reproached with his fists on his hips.

“If it was up to me you wouldn't have stepped inside this room.” Barked Tsukishima.

“Do you want anything to drink?” asked Yamaguchi, thin voice sounding like a flute in the middle of a storm.

Both cousins snapped their heads to look at him, Terushima made a gesture towards Yamaguchi “Thank you!” he exclaimed, eyeing at Tsukishima with his eyebrows raised, Tsukki looked ready to bite the smug expression off his face but he didn’t have time to do it before Terushima looked back at Yamaguchi, “Yes, Yamaguchi-kun, I’d like that.”

“Alright, eh…” Yamaguchi made a beeline for the fridge, actively ignoring Tsukishima’s burning eyes on his nape, he opened it and rummaged inside a little bit, “We have beer, coke, water… I could make some tea, if you’d like.”

“I’ll take a beer, thanks”

Yamaguchi handed it to him, “Tsukki, and for you?” but the blond just shook his head so Yamaguchi grabbed a coke for himself as he heard Terushima snickering under his breath and repeating Tsukishima’s nickname.

Once everyone was scattered around the narrow hallway they had for a kitchen and with their beverage (or lack of it) in hand, Tsukishima speaked “By the way, where’s Himari?” he had crossed his arms over his chest and was looking at his cousin like he was counting down the seconds before he walked out their room, which he probably was.

Terushima looked at him over his can and swallowed a mouthful of beer before answering, “Oh, I didn’t tell you? She’s not coming to the wedding.”

That seemed to cheer Tsukki up, “How come?”

A proud smile tugged at Terushima’s lips, “She got elected by one of her professors to be part of the investigating team for an article they’re writing. She’s going to appear as one of the authors in a very prestigious magazine” and there went Tsukishima’s mood.

“Oh. Good for her.” It would have probably sounded more convincing if he had at least tried to stop scowling.

Yamaguchi elbowed Tsukki discreetly and ignored him when he protested “That’s great! She must be very excited.” He said.

“She is! Kinda sad she has to miss the wedding, grandma wanted to see her,” Terushima commented “but you know, opportunities like this don’t pass twice.”

“And what’s the article is about?” Yamaguchi wondered, genuinely curious.

Yuuji let out a puff followed by a chuckle “No idea, man, she’s told me a million times, but it sounds so complicated that I forget. Something about a medicine and how it interacts with DNA sinteses…?”

“Sintases, yeah” Yamaguchi hummed, “maybe I’ll ask you again when it’s out to see if I can find it and read it.” Terushima seemed impressed by his reply and Yamaguchi could see out of the corner of his eye how Tsukishima’s lips twitched into a smile.

“You study medicine, too?” Terushima questioned Yamaguchi before taking a long swig of his beer.

“Well, kind of, veterinary medicine.” he replied. The blond whistled and looked at Tsukki with a grin “He’s cute, polite AND smart? You’ve found a keeper, Kei.”

Casually, Tsukki threw his arm over Yamaguchi’s shoulders, blissfully ignorant of how that simple gesture almost made Yamaguchi jump. “I know.” He heard Tsukki say, and simultaneusly felt his insides liquefy and pool at his feet, fighting the huge smile that was threatening to split his face in two; this was the kind of moments he had to be prepared for during this weekend, his acting couldn’t fail in the first one already. Thankfully, he managed to keep his cool on the outside, even if is heart kept beating harder and harder with each second that passed and he kept feeling the weight of Tsukki’s arm on him.

Terushima stared at them with a smile of his own and suddenly seemed to remember something, “Oh, by the way, the buddy I’m staying with these days told me there’s gonna be a party tomorrow night. He said it’s organized by one his friends and that everyone at the dorms is invited, are you guys coming?” he chugged the last of his beer and crumpled the can with his hands.

Yamaguchi looked at Tsukishima, unsure of what to say. He wouldn’t mind going, but he knew Tsukki wasn’t a huge fan of parties in general. Tsukishima did look ready to decline, however, a flash of something unknown crossed his eyes and he stopped himself. “Sure, we’ll be there.” He replied, after a few seconds. Yamaguchi frowned a little confused but didn’t question it.

“Great!” Terushima threw his flattened can to the bin like it was a basketball and did a victorious gesture when it entered, “Well, I should get going now. I just left all my stuff at my friend’s room and came here, so he must be wondering where I am” Yamaguchi internally whined when he felt Tsukki finally lift his arm from where it was still resting atop his shoulder to go accompany his cousin to the door, which was three steps away, anyway.

Terushima waved at Yamaguchi goodbye and he reciprocated “Bye, Yamaguchi-kun, it was nice meeting you. I’ll see you guys tomorrow night.”

Tsukki bid his farewell as he closed the door behind Terushima. He let out a deep breath when it was closed, resting his forehead on the wood.

“He is…” Yamaguchi started, not really knowing how to continue, “...not that bad,” he concluded.

“That’s because you weren’t with him for more than fifteen minutes” Tsukishima sighed and crossed the room to go sit on his bed. Yamaguchi left his half empty coke on the kitchen table and followed him but leaned on Tsukki’s desk in front of his bed, instead of sitting next to him.

“Well, looks to me like you are the only one competing, he seemed happy for you.” He said, resting his weight back on his hands.

“That’s because he is still sure that his winning in terms of dating. We must show him we are the superior couple” Tsukki replied solemnly making Yamaguchi chuckle, “Alright, but try to avoid looking at him like you are ready to commit bloody murder, you guys are still family.”

“I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”

Yamaguchi hummed looking down at where their feet where just a few inches from each other, absentmindedly, he tapped Tsukki’s with his “By the way,” he said without looking up, “why did you say you wanted to go to the party? It’s not like you.”

Tsukishima shrugged “I was about to say no, honestly”, he said, “but then I thought that a situation like that, you know, a party full of people that we know by sight and maybe a few actual acquaintances would be a good practice for the wedding.” He looked at Yamaguchi, “do you not want to go?”

Yamaguchi shook his head “No, it’s fine, it should be fun” he answered, he wanted to ask if that practice would involve more of Tsukki’s gentle touches and praises, even if they were fake, but he kept his mouth shut.

“Perfect” Tsukki said, looking deep in thought for a second. “Today was just a test. Tomorrow the show starts for real.”

With a nod, Yamaguchi tried to swallow around the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! Thank you all so much for the incredibly warm welcome you gave to this fic! I really wasn't expecting all your kudos and sweet words on the first chapter and I'm very grateful for them <3\. I hope you enjoyed this second chapter too.  
> Stay safe and hydrated, wash your hands, stay at home if you can and I'll see you on the next one ~


	3. Curtains up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's the tird chapter, it's a long one so grab a snack or something before you dive in ~ As a heads up, there's some smutty content ahead so there's that. Also mentions of Bad Bunny uwu. 
> 
> Enjoy!!

Life is funny sometimes, Yamaguchi thinks. One day you’re a baby, a tiny innocent thing with little knowledge of the world other than what’s directly in front of you at the moment and the way your mother smells; and the next thing you know is that you are standing in the middle of your room surrounded by almost every single article of clothing you own thrown over your scarce furniture and have been in that state for the past twenty minutes, incapable of deciding something as simple as what to put over the mortal carcass that is your body before you get thrown into the lion’s den, also known as a college party.

Maybe is being overdramatic.

But at the same time, isn’t everything relative? Surely, right now, at this very moment someone in some part of the world is taking a life-changing decision, reaching a milestone or doing something that will turn them into someone entirely different. In that context, it may be stupid of Yamaguchi to be obsessing over something as futile as clothes but, and hear him out for a second, he doesn’t know those people. He isn’t aware of those decisions that they’re making and doesn’t care about their milestones, he does care, however, about how his favourite t-shirt and pants are two different shades of black so they don’t match and therefore he can’t wear them together. Or he could, but it wouldn’t look good, would it?

With a cloud of steam around him, Tsukki comes out of the bathroom, “Seriously? You still aren’t dressed?” he asks with an exasperated tone, squinting a bit at where Yamaguchi is standing in his underwear, because he left his glasses on his desk.

Yamaguchi looks at him while biting his lip, “I’ve narrowed it down to three options, I think.”

Tsukki sighs and quickly puts on the shirt and jeans that he had set aside before stepping in the shower, this is why he let Yamaguchi shower first, but apparently he underestimated his friend’s incapability to make a simple choice. “Which ones?”

Yamaguchi gestures towards his bed where he has laid out the three possible outfits, Tsukki stands next to him and stares at them for a few seconds before taking one pair of pants from one of the combinations and a t-shirt from another one and handing them to Yamaguchi, “Here, this pants look nice on you, you should wear them.”

Yamaguchi just holds onto the fabric and asks dumbly, “And the t-shirt?” He doesn’t even question the way Tsukki hasn’t technically chosen one of the outfits, he has just rearranged a new one himself but his brain is to busy playing Tsukki’s compliment on repeat to worry about that.

Tuskki shrugs. “I just like Gorillaz.”

Relieved that he doesn't have to brood on what to wear anymore, Yamaguchi starts getting dressed while Tsukki goes back to the bathroom to dry and comb his hair.

Putting everything back in the closet proves itself to be a lot more time-consuming that taking it out was, so fifteen minutes later, Tsukishima is sitting down on his bed and scrolling through his phone waiting for Yamaguchi to finish getting ready, while the latter puts his hair on a low, short ponytail and throws a couple of chains around his neck and over his chest where Noodle’s looking at him with a funny face. He gives a final look at his reflection and smiles a little at the sight of his tattoo peeking out of the short sleeve of the shirt.

“I’m ready, we can leave.” He declares as he grabs his phone and the keys to the room.

Tsukki nods, stands up, and with that, they leave their room.

Tsukishima’s cousin had texted him that morning the room where the party was going to be and it turned out to be on their same hallway, just two floors above.

They had waited until it was almost midnight to start getting ready since they wanted to make sure the party was already started by the time they arrived. After all, he only thing more awkward than arriving too early at a party is to arrive too early at a party where you don’t personally know the host, or their friends, or most of the attendants, really. After walking up the first set of stairs, Yamaguchi stopped in his tracks “Tsukki, wait, I have a question.”

Tsukishima paused himself before putting his foot on the next step and looked at Yamaguchi with his eyebrows raised.

“Are we going to pretend just in front of your cousin? Or also when he’s not around? Because if he has friends here I really don’t think he’s gonna spend the whole night hanging out with us.”

Tsukki just looked at him for a second and hummed, like that thought hadn’t occurred to him “I think we should do it the whole time, it’s more believable that way.”

“Even around people that we know?”

“We can tell them that we got together recently.” He answered, “Unless you don’t want to.” Tsukishima added, tentatively. Yamaguchi couldn’t help but find sweet the way he kept making sure he was okay with everything even as they went along. He shook his head and reassumed his way up the stairs “No, it’s fine. I was just making sure,” he flashed a smile at Tsukki when he walked past him and up the stairs, “so we’re coordinated.”

When they got to the room, it turned out that the party wasn’t happening in one room, but rather in at least four, simultaneously. The doors were open and there was different music coming out of each one of them, people gathered at the hallway and came in and out of them freely, holding plastic cups, talking and laughing. Yamaguchi could see some people he knew, a couple of kids from his class, a girl from Tsukki’s, as well as a couple he recognized as their neighbours that lived a couple doors over. They decided to go into the room that Terushima had sent them and see if he was there. They found him in the kitchen chatting with a redhead guy, he noticed them immediately.

“Hey, Kei!” he waved enthusiastically and gestured them to come closer, “This is Tendou, the friend I told you about; Tendou, this is my cousin Kei and his boyfriend, Yamaguchi-kun.”

Tendou greeted them with a lazy grin, his eyes looked red and glossy “Hey.”

Terushima put his hand over Yamaguchi’s shoulder and beamed at them “You guys want anything to drink? There’s vodka, rum, gin…”

“Sure,” nodded Tsukishima before following his cousin towards the bottles that covered the kitchen counter and part of the stove, there was also a bowl with ice next to a huge bag with plastic cups that someone had knocked over and now a few of them laid on the sticky floor. “You seem very comfortable, for someone that doesn’t even live here” Tsukki observed.

Terushima laughed as he picked up a cup and filled it with ice “I’m friends with the owner of the room, he’s a really chill dude, Tendou introduced us. What do you want?” he gestured towards the bottles.

“Vodka with lemon,” answered Tsukki immediately, it was what he always drank, whenever he did, which wasn’t very frequently, but still. Terushima poured it for him and handed him the cup before taking another one, “Yamaguchi-kun?”

“Rum with coke, please” Yamaguchi thanked Terushima when he gave him his drink, poured like a professional bartender would do it. He felt a little less socially naked with a drink in his hand, like everybody else.

“There you go,” Terushima said, “and if you want weed you can ask by the window” he pointed towards the other side of the room where two girls were passing a joint between them and blowing the smoke out the window. Yamaguchi and Tsukki declined, for now.

A familiar voice suddenly approached them “Terushima, what the fuck are you doing here?”

Yamaguchi turned to look at the source of the voice and found a lanky guy with disheveled black hair. “Oh, hey, Tsukki, Yamaguchi, I hadn’t seen you there!” he added with a grin.

“Kuroo!” Terushima exclaimed raising his cup as a salute “I was invited, so you can’t kick me out” he laughed. “Wait, you guys know each other?” he asked.

“I could ask you the same thing” responded Kuroo.

“Kei is my cousin!” Terushima said like it was the most exciting thing ever, the aforementioned just raised his hand and nodded at Kuroo with a slight move of his head. “I’m here because one of our cousins is getting married next week and we’re all going to the wedding together” he said, laying one of his arms on Yamaguchi’s shoulder.

“You’re going, too?” Kuroo inquired looking at Yamaguchi. He just nodded, not wanting to elaborate further but it wasn’t necessary, since Terushima did it for him.

“He’s Kei’s plus one” he commented wiggling his eyebrows. Kuroo’s eyes went wide at that, wider than the half lidded state at which they usually rested, that is.

“I didn’t know you two were a thing” he said with a lopsided smile.

“It’s recent” Tsukki hurried to reply.

“Well, it makes sense, you guys make a good couple.” Kuroo complimented, to what Yamaguchi gave him a shy thanks. Tsukishima didn’t respond, and just took a gulp of his vodka.

“By the way,” Terushima intervened, “is Bokuto here? I haven’t seen him.”

“Yeah, him and Akaashi walked in with me just now, wait,” he turned around and scanned through the room until he found Bokuto and his boyfriend, who were intensely making out against the wall, “Bokuto! Akaashi! Stop sucking face and come say hi!” he screamed without the least bit of shame. Bokuto’s head perked up and Akaashi’s shoulders tensed as he turned to give Kuroo a murderous look. Bokuto’s eyes shined when he saw the familiar face “Terushima!” he shouted, grabbing Akaashi’s hand and dragging him towards them.

“How the fuck do you know everyone in here?” Tsukishima asked his cousin incredulously.

“We play volleyball together sometimes” Terushima replied cheerfully before leaning forward to grab Bokuto’s hand in what could only be described as a bro handshake. “How are you, man?”

“I’m good!” Bokuto replied excitedly, “And what about you, dude? Long time no see! What are you doing here?”

“I’m fine, everything’s fine” Terushima said, “I’m here to visit my cousin,” he pointed to Tsukishima, who at this point seemed to be done with the conversation, “we are going to a wedding next week.”

“Oh, hey Tsukki, I hadn't noticed you there!” Yamaguchi wondered if Tsukki and him were standing in a particularly dark spot of the kitchen or if Terushima’s presence was so dazzling that it overshadowed them completely.

Bokuto then noticed him standing right behind Tsukki and shot a huge toothy smile his way, “Hello! I’m Bokuto” he said raising his cup, which seemed to be the standard way of greeting, he then threw his arm around Akaashi, pulling him towards his beefy chest “and this is Akaashi!” Akaashi also raised his cup towards Yamaguchi, but silently.

Yamaguchi nodded his head in acknowledgement and smiled back “Hi, I’m Yamaguchi, nice to meet you.”

“Oh, you’re that Yamaguchi! Nice to finally meet you, too, man!” Bokuto chirped cheerfully. Yamaguchi felt his cheeks flush as he realized that Tsukki must have talking about him to his friends, which wasn’t entirely weird or out of place, but it made his heart skip a few beats, regardless.

Kuroo elbowed Bokuto and pointed towards Yamaguchi “Tsukki’s boyfriend.” He said with the same teasing smile Terushima had sported when he first said it; teasing Tsukki seemed to be the passtime all of them shared, besides volleyball.

Bokuto’s mouth shot open into a big O and he looked back and forth between Yamaguchi and Tsukki a few times before slapping his hand on Tsukki’s shoulder a little too forcefully, making the latter wince “Tsukki!! You didn’t told me that you had a boyfriend!” he reproached him.

“Why would I?” Tsukishima questioned rubbing at his shoulder.

“Because we’re friends!”

“We are?”

Anyone else would have probably taken offense but Bokuto just laughed boisterously and slapped his shoulder again, making Tsukishima’s thin frame stagger.

“And how did you guys meet?” he asked, his eyes sparkling, “Oh, man, I never thought I would get to hear about Tsukki’s love life!”

Tsukki scowled at Bokuto like he was seriously contemplating the possibility of just cutting the conversation short and leaving him hanging, but in the end he gave a sigh and said “We’ve been sharing a room since first year and we’ve been friends ever since” he looked at Yamaguchi, who was standing beside him, with an earnest look in his eyes, “I guess it just felt right to take that next step.”

The sincere tone of his voice and the openness of his expression filled Yamaguchi’s chest with something warm, making him forget how to breathe for a second, forget everyone else who was in the room with them if even for just a moment. His lips split into a soft smile as he looked back into Tsukki’s hazel eyes and he wondered if Tsukki would find it to be overdone acting on his part if he kissed him right now.

He didn’t get the chance to find out, though, since his heartfelt moment was cut short by an exaggerated moan on his right.

“Awww! Would you look at that! Who would have thought Kei’s little, cold, dead heart was still capable of love?” Terushima wondered, with a dramatic pout on his face.

“Right? Like, geez, you guys are making me feel extra single and lonely here” Kuroo joked.

Bokuto, however, was uncharacteristically quiet, his hands clasped over his chest and looking genuinely starstruck at Tsukishima’s words “Tsukki…” he started off, “I’m so happy for you guys!” he exclaimed as he lunged forward to trap Yamaguchi and Tsukishima in a crushing hug with his huge arms, ignoring all of Tsukki’s protests and Yamaguchi’s struggles to breathe. When he let them go he wiped at his glossy eyes, earning a laugh from Kuroo.

“No way you are crying, Bo!”

“You don’t understand, Kuroo, I’m a sensitive soul!” he retorted dramatically, Akaashi put his arm around him in a comforting manner “There, there, Bokuto, we’re all happy for them. No need to make a scene.”

Out of the blue, Terushima gasped, making everyone in their little circle look at him in surprise “They’re playing my song!!” Yamaguchi tried to focus on the music but couldn’t make out the [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rbprAR_Reg), the rest of them seemed to be as lost as him when Terushima started singing, or rather screeching melodically “NO ME VUELVAS A DECIR BEBÉEE”

Bokuto jumped at those words, his tears and sensitive soul long forgotten as he realized which song it was “YO NO SOY TUYO NI DE NADIE, YO SOY SOLO DE MÍ” he sang along with Terushima. Everyone looked at them in confused fascination as they ran to the middle of the room that right now was working as a makeshift dance floor to continue screaming the lyrics and move in a way that one couldn’t be very sure whether it was an attempt at twerking or some bizarre mating dance you could find in tropical primate species.

“... Anyway.” Concluded Tsukki with an exasperated expression, taking another long gulp of his cup. Yamaguchi chuckled and took a sip of his too.

“This is why we shouldn’t give alcohol to those two.” Commented Kuroo, Akaashi nodding in agreement.

They kept chatting lightly for some time, when Yamaguchi noticed one of his classmates in the hallway “Oh,” he tapped Tsukki’s shoulder, “I just saw a friend, I’ll be back in a bit” Tsukki nodded and Yamaguchi left him commenting Jurassic Park with Kuroo and Akaashi.

“Hi, Maeda!” He greeted as he approached the raven haired girl that was leaning against the wall trying to write a text with one hand as she drank from her plastic cup. Her eyes raised from her phone at the sound of Yamaguchi’s voice and she moved her drink from her face to smile at him “Yamaguchi! I didn’t know you were coming!”

“I wasn’t going to until yesterday, really.” He replied.

“Well,” she said winking at him “it’s a good way to let out all of the stress after this crazy exam season”. Yamaguchi rolled his eyes with and exaggerated sigh “Tell me about it”.

She let out a laugh and looked at Yamaguchi’s cup in his hand “What are you drinking?”

Yamaguchi looked down at the brown liquid and then back at her “Rum with coke”. She made a face and offered him hers “Here, try this instead.”

Yamaguchi took the red cup offered to him and took a sip out of it. He was expecting a bitter, alcoholic taste but got something sweet and delicious instead; he hummed “What is it?” he asked, while handing it back.

“Pink gin with strawberry milkshake” She replied looking smug. “Sounds yucky but tastes amazing” She punctuated her phrase by taking another sip. “You want some? Some friends and I bought a few bottles to share.”

After trying that there was no way Yamaguchi was going to spend the rest of the night drinking rum and coke, “If they don’t mind…”

“Nah, that’s no problem. Come, we left them in this room” They went into the room on the left of the one Yamaguchi had come out of, where things looked more or less the same: a bunch of people by the window smoking, a bunch of people in the kitchen drinking and dancing and a couple heavily making out on one of the beds. Maeda led him through the sea of alcohol and sweaty bodies towards a group of sweaty bodies drinking alcohol sitting in a circle in a corner of the room.

Yamaguchi looked around and saw a couple faces he recognized as Maeda’s friends that sometimes ate with her at the cafeteria, but besides that he didn’t know anyone.

“Guys, this is Yamaguchi, we go to the same class. Be nice to him or I’ll bite you.” She declared as she nudged at two of her friends with her foot to make some space for her and Yamaguchi. Easily, the circle shifted around and they could sit down, everyone greeted Yamaguchi in a friendly manner and introduced themselves; he tried his best to get all the names down but he surely would forget at least half of them in fifteen minutes.

Maeda stretched herself to grab the bottles that were sitting in the middle of their formation and then went to take Yamaguchi’s cup to fill it for him, “Dude, you still have this half full, drink it already!”

Obediently, Yamaguchi took it back and started gulping down the rum and coke he had left, soon enough everyone in their little circle realized he was chugging his drink and started chanting “Drink! Drink! Drink!”, making Yamaguchi laugh and almost spill half of it all over his shirt. When he finished he raised the cup triumphantly and Maeda’s friends cheered. Maeda patted his back “Look at you being all wild and shit!” she snickered as she refilled his cup with her strawberry concoction. “I’m full of surprises” he joked back, feeling confident after having been so well received by her friends.

“We were about to start playing Never have I ever, are you guys in?” One of the girls (Chiyoko?) asked them, she had the longest hair Yamaguchi had ever seen and was wearing a bold purple lipstick that made it almost impossible to not focus on her mouth every time she spoke.

“Sure” Maeda replied for both of them.

The game started of pretty standard, with phrases like “Never have I ever broken a bone”, “Never have I ever been attracted to someone in this group”, knowing glances and laughs directed at each other whenever someone drank. However, after a couple rounds, things, like in any other party game, started to heat up and get incredibly specific.

“Never have I ever ended up in the ER after trying to experiment with a cucumber and going too far.”

“Shit, man, I told you that in confidence!!”

Some time later, Yamaguchi felt the consequences of all the times Maeda had refilled his cup and had to excuse himself to go to the bathroom. As he stood up, he realized just how much further those consequences went, almost tripping over himself and falling on one of Maeda’s friends, one with a flashy green undercut. He apologized and staggered on his way to the toilet, that was thankfully unoccupied.

After relieving himself he stared at his reflection in the mirror; he looked fine, a little sweaty, maybe, due to the stuffy atmosphere of the room and his eyes a little glossy, thanks to the alcohol, but still pretty good for a drunk guy standing in someone’s bathroom at 2:30 am.

Wait.

2:30 am?

Crap, almost 40 minutes had passed since he left Tsukki in the other room with Kuroo and Akaashi, he had got so caught up in the conversation that he hadn’t realized the time. Almost as if on cue, his phone vibrated with message from Tsukki. He was asking where he was. Yamaguchi hurried to reply that he was still with his classmate but he was just about to go back. A few seconds later, another text popped out on the screen: “k. we’re still in the same room” Yamaguchi sighed and put his phone back in his pocket, hopefully Tsukki wasn’t mad at him for going missing unprompted.

He came out of the bathroom with the intention of gogoing back to the corner of the room to say bye to Maeda and her friends, but someone suddenly got in his way. It was one of the girls from the circle, the one that had been sitting next to the guy with the green hair. Her name was Ichika, if Yamaguchi remembered correctly.

“Hey,” she said with an easy smile.

“Hey” Yamaguchi responded, “sorry, I was just about to go back and say bye–” he made a motion to walk past her, but she didn’t move from in front of him.

“Oh, you’re leaving already?” she asked, a pout adorning her round face, “I was hoping we could chat for a while, you seem like a really cool guy” she lifted her hand and wrapped it around Yamaguchi’s left arm, her thumb moving back and forth, rubbing just at the top of his bicep where the bottom part of his tattoo peeked out of the sleeve. “We can go back to my room and smoke for a bit, if you want to,” she offered getting just a tiny bit closer to him, her chest now brushing against the bottom part of his ribcage.

Honestly, she was very attractive, all big eyes and glossy pink lips. Under any other circumstances, Yamaguchi would have probably accepted her invitation, but right now, knowing that Tsukki was waiting for him in the next room, he wasn’t the least bit interested.

Not to mention that, no matter how much his alcohol-confused brain was struggling to process everything around him, he knew making out with a girl in the middle of the party and leaving with her to her room, wasn’t going to be any good for their plan’s credibility. Still, he had to admit, he was flattered.

He put his hand on top of hers and gently made her let go of his arm “I’m sorry” he said, feeling the slightest bit of guilt upon seeing her rejected expression, “I’m dating someone.” Well, not really, kind of. In a way.

She quickly got the message and took a step back, looking genuinely embarrassed, Yamaguchi just assured her it was fine and excused himself as he quickly left the room. He would have to just send a message to Maeda thanking her for the drinks and for being so nice to him, going back to the circle after having rejected one of her friends just felt too awkward.

When he got to the other room he started looking for Tsukki and quickly found him by the window, animatedly chatting with Kuroo. He saw the dark-haired take a drag of the cigarette he had between his fingers and blow the smoke out the window before leaning closer and saying something to Tsukki’s ear, who laughed and replied something that had Kuroo playfully elbowing him.

Yamaguchi walked up to them and Tsukishima quickly noticed him, “Hello there, we were starting to think you had ran away.” He said, but had a small relaxed smile on his face that told Yamaguchi that he wasn’t angry, and also that he was probably just as drunk as Yamaguchi felt.

“Sorry, she introduced me to some of her friends and I lost track of time a little bit.” Yamaguchi replied.

“A little bit, it’s been like an hour,” Tsukki retorted with an eyebrow raised and a scolding tone; Yamaguchi must have made a very sorrowful expression at that because the blond quickly let out a huff similar to a laugh and patted his shoulder “It’s fine,” he assured him.

“Don’t worry, Yamaguchi-kun, I’ve kept him in check in your absence, making sure he didn’t get into any trouble.” Kuroo commented with a playful grin.

“Sure you have” retorted Tsukishima with irony.

“He has had a couple more of those than he probably should have, though” Kuroo continued, ignoring him and pointing to Tsukishima’s empty cup in his hand.

“What are you, my dad?” Tsukishima insisted, sounding annoyed.

Yamaguchi made a dismissive gesture with his hand “That’s alright,” he said, and then covering his mouth with his hand as if was about to tell a secret he added “me too.”

Tsukki snorted at that and Kuroo barked out a laugh, before tapping off the ash of his cigarette and offering it to Yamaguchi, who declined.

Yamaguchi flinched when he heard a loud voice call his name over the music “Yamaguchi!”. He turned around to find Hinata waving at him excitedly as he quickly approached them, Kageyama following him close but looking a lot less thrilled. “I didn’t know you were here!” he said when he was close enough, “Hello to you too, Tsukishima, Kuroo-san!” Yamaguchi didn’t know Kuroo and Hinata knew each other, but then again probably everyone and their mother knew Hinata, it was hard to not notice the boy and his antics.

Kageyama also said hello to everyone as soon as he was standing next to them, but as it was usual in this kind of social situations, he let his boyfriend do the talking.

“Guys, we need help!” Hinata cried out, “we are about to play body shots in the other room and we are in charge of recruiting couples to join! Do you know anyone?”

Yamaguchi felt a shiver go through his spine, his drunken mind processing what those words could imply and he felt Tsukki shift on his right, probably about to say that no, they didn’t know anyone; but Kuroo was quicker.

“Look no further, bud, you’ve got a one right here.” He said gesturing towards Yamaguchi and Tsukishima.

Hinata gasped “No way!” he started bouncing giddily before he turned sharply to Kageyama who was standing behind him, “I told you! You owe me a meat bun!” Kageyama just huffed and muttered a “Whatever”.

“We don’t wanna play, though.” Tsukishima said before Hinata could get any weird ideas.

Hinata’s cheerful expression fell right off his face “Aw, c’mon it’s more fun with more people!” he desperately looked between Yamaguchi and Tsukki with big, begging eyes.

“Leave it, Shouyou,” Kageyama said, “the shots are tequila, they’re probably too strong for Tsukishima, anyway. We don’t want him passing out.” He finished with a defiant smile looking directly at Tsukki. Kuroo whistled lowly and Yamaguchi sighed.

“What the fuck did you say?” Tsukishima spitted. Sober Tsukki would have probably come up with some sarcastic remark and ignored the two of them until they left them alone to look for some other willing couple, but then again, this wasn’t sober Tsukki. Plus, his tolerance to alcohol had already been questioned that night and he wasn’t going to be accepting any other blows to his pride. “I can take any amount of tequila you give me.”

Yamaguchi was clearly seeing how all of this was going to end and he started to mentally go over posible options for his epitaph. “Here lies Yamaguchi Tadashi, friend and son, died of a heart attack in a college party due to body shots with his crush” didn’t sound half bad.

“Alright!” Hinata celebrated, “Let’s go!” he said as he grabbed their wrists and dragged them out of the room, leaving behind a very amused Kuroo.

Thankfully, the body shot room was different one from the room Maeda and her friends were in, it would have been kind of uncomfortable to walk in and start doing body shots in front of her and Ichika, Yamaguchi thought.

When they got there, the set up consisted of a big plastic box, probably to store clothes or other items, that someone had put upside down to work as a table, on top of it there was the tequila bottle, five shot glasses, a few slices of lemon (they probably didn’t find any limes), and a salt shaker. Another two couples were already sitting around their made up table, probably waiting for Hinata and Kageyama to come back or drink the tequila by themselves if they didn’t.

The four of them sat down on the floor, a little cramped since the box wasn’t very big; Yamaguchi could feel his knee digging up on the underside of Tsukki’s thigh.

“Okay!” Hinata clapped “We can start now! Everyone knows how to do body shots, right?” All of them nodded in agreement and Hinata hummed as he filled the glasses “Great, make it spicy, everyone, don’t be shy!”

“Spicy?” Tsukishima questioned looking at Hinata with the annoyed expression he had been wearing since they left the other room; meanwhile, the other two couples had wasted no time and were already downing down their shots.

“Yeah, you know,” Hinata winked at him, “spicy.” The redhead giggled.

“I really don’t know.” Tsukishima deadpanned.

Kageyama let out a laugh “Yamaguchi must bore to death with you” he muttered loud enough for Tsukki to hear.

Tsukishima’s eyebrow twitched “Maybe if you two managed to connect the two lonely brain cells you have in those thick skulls of yours long enough to come up with phrases that have actual meaning, I would understand you when you speak.”

Yamaguchi snorted at Tsukki’s outburst, but quickly pressed his lips in a thin line so Kageyama and Hinata wouldn’t think he was laughing at them.

Hinata frowned and stuck his tongue out “No need to be so mean, Tsukishima-kun” he said, “this is what I mean when I say make it spicy.”

After that, he proceeded to grab one of the lemon slices and stuff it into Kageyama’s mouth who happily accepted it. Taking the salt shaker, Hinata got closer to Kageyama and licked a wet line along his neck before putting some salt over the spit, making it stick to the taller’s skin. Then, he licked Kageyama’s neck clean slowly, nipping at it a bit, he took the glass and downed it in two gulps. He left the it on the plastic box and leaned in to bite into the lemon Kageyama was holding with his teeth to suck the juice out and then spit out the lemon onto the floor, making Tsukishima look at him with a disgusted expression; finally, with the fruit out of the way Hinata was quick to wrap his arms around Kageyama’s shoulders and kiss him deeply, the other’s arms circling around his waist. Yamaguchi witnessed the whole operation with growing discomfort knowing perfectly well their turn was right after, feeling equal parts excited and terrified at the prospect of Tsukki and him following Kageyama and Hinata’s example.

After a few seconds, the couple parted, looking at each other with satisfied smiles, their arms still wrapped around each other. Hinata turned to Tsukishima and handed him the salt shaker “Do you get it now?” he asked.

Tsukishima just snatched the object from Hinata’s hand without a word, and stretched his arm to grab a lemon slice.

He turned to Yamaguchi and offered him the fruit “Is this okay?” he asked with a concerned expression, quietly enough to avoid Hinata and Kageyama hearing. Yamaguchi gave him a light nod and put the lemon between his teeth.

Tsukishima moved the filled shot glass a little closer and then lifted his hand to carefully hold the left side of Yamaguchi’s neck as he leaned in. Yamaguchi could have sworn each millisecond passed incredibly slow and at the same time dizzily fast, when suddenly he felt the warm wetness of Tsukki’s tongue right next to his adam’s apple and making a diagonal line towards his ear. Then, Tsukki moved away to put some salt over the trail and went back in to lick it clean like Hinata had done. He didn’t nip at Yamaguchi’s neck, though, and Yamaguchi thanked every God he knew for that because he would have probably imploded right then and there if he did, he already felt like his chest as about to burst just by having Tsukki’s hot breath against his jaw.

After the salt was done, Tsukki took the glass and swallowed down the shot swiftly. He then put the glass back down and turned back to Yamaguchi who braced himself for impact.

Tsukishima sucked the juice out of the lemon, his nose touching Yamaguchi’s and then lifted his hand, because there was no way he was going to be as disgusting as Hinata, to grab the slice and throw it over his shoulder; his half-lidded eyes looked at Yamaguchi’s mouth for half a second and then up into his eyes. In a quick move he pushed his glasses up so they rested on top of his head and wrapped his hand around the back of Yamaguchi’s neck before capturing his lips in a kiss. Someone wolf-whistled, but Yamaguchi didn’t know who since he had closed his eyes the moment he felt Tsukki’s mouth on his.

Tsukki’s lips were as soft as he had imagined, moving against his with ease. Yamaguchi couldn’t stop the shaky sigh that left his lungs when he felt the tip of Tsukki’s tongue trace his lower lip and, suddenly feeling bold, he wrapped his arm around Tsukki’s shoulder to pull him even closer, making the blonde shift and move his head a little to the side so he could kiss him deeper. Tsukishima’s hand that was resting on the floor crawled towards Yamaguchi’s and intertwined their fingers when he found it.

After what must have been the best fifteen seconds of Yamaguchi’s 20 years of life, Tsukishima pulled back and Yamaguchi slowly opened his eyes, seeing what could only be described as an absolute fantasy: Tsukki staring at him with his dreamy eyes and his glasses still on his head, his cheeks tinted pink and his mouth still slightly open.

Yamaguchi bit his lip as he fought the powerful, powerful urge of just launching forward and going back for more but he managed to restrain himself.

Tsukki put his glasses back on and cleared his throat, ignoring Hinata and Kageyama’s teasing comments, but left his hand resting on top of Yamaguchi’s on the floor.

* * *

One thing led to another, the first spicy body shot led to a second spicier one, and then a third, and a fourth…

It couldn’t have been more than half an hour but they had managed to finish the tequila bottle and make a total mess of the floor with the lemons and the salt, with little to no regard for the poor host that was going to find their room in total wreckage the next morning.

Kageyama and Hinata, as well as one of the other two couples they had been playing with, had fled to God knows where, probably somewhere a more private. The other two were in a knot of limbs on the sheets of the bed against which Tsukishima’s back was currently resting, with a very heated Yamaguchi sitting on his lap, cold hands sneaking under the Gorillaz t-shirt to press against warm, freckled skin.

Tsukki kept biting Yamaguchi’s lower lip and running his tongue over the metal ring that crossed the middle of it, and while it had been a pleasant surprise the first time the first time he had done it, it was starting to get Yamaguchi hot and bothered, which wasn’t ideal considering they were very much still in a public setting, just all over each other on the floor while the party kept happening around them.

Yamaguchi’s fingers tangled in Tsukki’s blond curls and he tugged at them lightly when he felt the taller’s hand go lower and grip his hips.

“You two need to get a room!” Terushima’s voice came from somewhere in the room, surprising Yamaguchi and making him pull back, which Tsukishima didn’t appreciate, as he immediately dived in to start kissing a path up his neck.

When he reached Yamaguchi’s jaw he stopped and looked at him with clouded eyes “Should we?” His speech was slurred.

Yamaguchi was still breathing heavy, “Should we what?” he asked, all of his blood was running south dangerously quickly, leaving only the alcohol in his brain.

“Go… to our room” Tsukki replied, his hands still resting on Yamaguchi’s hip bones.

Yamaguchi’s fried brain cells managed to spark up a connection and he nodded so hard he almost gave himself whiplash. He clumsily stood up from his seat on Tsukki’s lap and helped the blond stand up.

With his hand clasped around Tsukki’s, Yamaguchi made his way through the room, walking past Terushima and Tendou who were rolling cigarettes in the kitchen, Tsukki’s cousin giving him a thumbs up with a knowing smile when they locked eyes.

The trip back to their room was a lot harder than it should have been, their urgency and poor balance having them almost trip and crack their heads open as they rushed down the stairs. With hushed, breathless laughs and constant shushing they finally got to their door. Yamaguchi fished for his key in the pocket of his stupidly tight jeans and hurried to unlock it.  
Once the door was open, he stepped in and grabbed the neck of Tsukki’s shirt to pull him in as well, closing the door behind them as he took it where they had left it and kissed the blond once again.

Tsukki easily obliged circling his arms around Yamaguchi’s waist. In turn, Yamaguchi hooked his arms around the other’s neck and raised on his toes to shorten the distance. They stayed like that for a few seconds, kissing in the darkness of the room when Tsukki, who was the brain of the two for a reason, panted something against Yamaguchi’s mouth “Maybe we should do this on the bed.”

Yamaguchi relaxed his hold on Tsukki’s neck and went back down to stand on the soles of his shoes “Y-yeah, right, yeah” he stuttered with eloquence.

They stumbled in the dark trying to get to one of their beds, when they found one, most possibly Tsukki’s, Yamaguchi slumped onto it and Tsukki followed suit. In no time they were tangled around each other, Yamaguchi threw his leg over Tsukki’s hips and the rest of his body followed, ending up in a straddle position similar to the one they had been earlier, except horizontally, which opened a new world of possibilities.

Yamaguchi dived in looking for Tsukki’s mouth, while his hands tugged out the last bit of shirt that still remained tucked in his pants to press his palms against Tsukki’s stomach. He felt a pair of hands grab his thighs and grip them tightly, making him groan and press his hips against Tsukishima’s.

That had the blond gasping and his hands going up until one rested against Yamaguchi’s back and the other grasped his ass.

Yamaguchi pecked the corner of Tsukki’s mouth before leaving it completely and leaving a trail of wet kisses down his jaw and towards his ear to nip lightly at the lobe. His hand crept slowly up Tsukishima’s torso until it reached his chest, his fingers grazing against a nipple, which caused the taller’s hips to twitch and thrust up weakly against Yamaguchi’s own.

Satisfied with the reaction, Yamaguchi decided to push his luck and unbutton the first half of Tsukki’s shirt, although his shaky hands, blurry vision and the fact that he was trying to do it while being in total darkness made it almost impossible, “Goddammit” he muttered frustrated after spending an entire minute fighting against the third button.

“Wait,” Tsukki whispered before propping up on his elbows and stretching his body towards his nightstand to turn on the little lamp he used to read, “There.”

“Thanks” Yamaguchi said, distracted, as he hurried to get Tsukishima’s shirt off and out of the way, now that he could actually see what his hands were doing.

He almost squealed when he finally saw Tsukki’s chest in all its pale glory but he managed to keep his cool. Scooting back a bit, he leaned down and started to kiss Tsukki’s collarbone, nibbling lightly at it, before going lower to leave lighter kisses over his pecs. He could feel the rise and fall of Tsukishima’s breath under his lips, and his moan reverberate in his chest when his mouth closed around Tsukki’s right nipple. He tugged at the other one lightly with fingers, encouraged by Tsukki’s sounds.

The blond’s hips thrusted up once again in a reflex, making his crotch press against the higher part of Yamaguchi’s thigh. Yamaguchi let out whiny moan when he felt how hard Tsukki was.

With his heartbeat resounding in his ears, Yamaguchi detached himself from Tsukki’s torso and let his left hand go down to put his palm on Tsukki’s bulge.

Tsukishima gasped falteringly when Yamaguchi squeezed him a little more firmly and he took the other’s face between his hands to guide him back down and into a kiss, that was more a press of their slack mouths together, Tsukki unable to keep himself silent long enough to actually do any kissing. He was a lot more vocal than Yamaguchi could have ever expected, maybe because of the alcohol, but he couldn’t say he wasn’t loving every second of it.

“Tsukki,” Yamaguchi started in a whisper thrown against his friend’s lips “Tsukki, I really wanna suck you off, can I?” he accentuated his question with another squeeze.

Tsukishima groaned loudly and his nails scratched the back of Yamaguchi’s neck as his hands curled into fists “Fuck, yeah” he said, breathless, “yeah, do it.”

That’s all Yamaguchi needed to hear before he was planting his hands on the bed, one at each side of Tsukki’s head before raising to stand on all fours above him. He scooted backwards to sit between Tsukishima’s legs but they were two tall men on a single bed so there wasn’t much space; Tsukishima noticed and quickly sat up to shuffle back until his back was against the headboard.

Yamaguchi settled between the blond’s ridiculously long legs and started pressing his mouth against the lower part of his abdomen, following down his happy trail while his hands worked to unbutton and unzip Tsukki’s pants and then push them down until they were finally off.

With the thickest layer of fabric out of the way, Yamaguchi started to press open mouthed kisses all over Tsukki’s bulge. There was a wet patch around the head where Tsukki had been leaking and Yamaguchi closed his lips around it making Tsukki let out a whine.

When he got bored of licking cotton, he tugged at the blond’s boxer briefs just enough for his cock to spring out. Yamaguchi was sure that, if he had been a cartoon character, his eyes would have turned into giant hearts right at that moment. Tsukki’s dick was as pretty as everything else about him, long and pink and standing against his abdomen leaning a little to the side.

With careful fingers, he took the base and gave a slow lick to the head, pressing his tongue flat against it just to test the waters, Tsukishima’s wrecked voice muttering “Oh, fuck…” was all the encouragement he needed.

He put the tip in his mouth and started suckling on it while his hand moved along the rest of the length. It was a bit of an uncomfortable drag, too dry. He took his mouth off the head and started licking long lines up from the base and then licked the palm of his hand and his fingers for good measure. He tried again and this time it felt much better, for Tsukishima too, if his shudder was anything to go by.

Yamaguchi went back to sucking on the tip while stroking the rest with his hand, but this time, he started to gradually shorten the distance he covered with his hand as he started to push Tsukishima’s dick deeper and deeper into his mouth.

“God, Tadashi…” Tsukki moaned putting his hands of Yamaguchi’s head, his fingers sneaking into the low ponytail Yamaguchi had contained his hair in.

The sound of his given name coming from Tsukki’s mouth and in these circumstances, no less, made Yamaguchi whimper and push the rest of the way until his nose was resting against Tsukishima’s pubic bone. He thanked his physiology for his weak gag reflex.

Tsukishima breath hitched when he felt Yamaguchi swallowing around him. He kept moaning his name over and over, as if now that he had said it, he just couldn’t stop it. Yamaguchi wasn’t going to complain.

Yamaguchi’s hand that wasn’t resting on Tsukki’s hip went to palm himself between his legs as he pulled off from the blond’s dick, just enough to wrap his hand back around the base once again and start bobbing his head up and down. Tsukki’s fingers tightened on his scalp.

“I’m… f-fuck, I’m close” Tsukki warned him.

He pulled back completely but kept his hand moving up and down quickly. He didn’t move away his face, though, keeping his mouth open and waiting over the tip. After a few seconds, Tsukki was coming over Yamaguchi’s tongue and chin.

Yamaguchi swallowed what landed in his mouth and passed his tongue over the rest. He sat up between Tsukishima’s legs, still rubbing his hand against his crotch. Tsukki was laying in front of him looking like a ragdoll, trying to catch his breath after his orgasm.

Yamaguchi leaned over him, putting the hand that wasn’t over his pants next to Tsukki’s hip and resting his weight on it.

“Kei” he whined “Help me.”

Tsukki opened his eyes and looked at Yamaguchi’s face and then down between his legs. He sat up straighter and grabbed Yamaguchi’s shoulders to have him sit on the top of his thighs. Once Yamaguchi was in position, Tsukki quickly opened the front of his pants and pushed his hand down the front of his underwear to take out his dick.

He started to jerk him off rapidly, his grip tight and wet thanks to all the precum Yamaguchi had been leaking this whole time. Yamaguchi let out a long moan as he wrapped his arms around Tsukki’s shoulders and hid his face against the side of his neck.

Tsukishima put his other hand on the back of Yamaguchi’s head and made him lift it so they could kiss. Yamaguchi pushed the blond’s glasses up so they wouldn’t poke his face and kissed him deeply, letting Tsukishima swallow each and every one of his groans as he fucked into his fist.

It wasn’t too long before Yamaguchi’s hips twitched and he came with a moan of Tsukishima’s name hanging off his lips, making a mess of Tsukki’s hand and stomach.

  
They stayed still for a while, their heavy breathing was the only sound disturbing the otherwise silent room. After a couple minutes Yamaguchi noticed Tsukki was starting to doze off with his head hanging uncomfortably against the headboard. He stood up, leaving Tsukki to shift until he was finally resting on the pillow, and grabbed a tissue from his desk, and used it to wipe up the mess he had made. Tsukki let himself be cleaned and fell asleep even before Yamaguchi was done.

  
Yamaguchi threw away the tissue and collapsed on his own bed, and fell asleep as well, purposefully ignoring the thoughts about what he would have to deal with in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Hopefully you liked that! Should I up the rating to explicit or just leave at mature?? Also, in the last chapter AO3 kinda messed up my notes, if anyone knows how I can fix it please tell me in the comments.
> 
> As always thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next one!


	4. The hangover blues.

Next afternoon, Yamaguchi woke up with his mouth feeling and tasting like a dirty sock and a pounding headache. He opened his eyes and stared at his ceiling as the memories from last night hit him like a truck. Bokuto and Tsukki’s cousin dancing horribly, Maeda and her friends, the tequila shots… His head bobbing between Tsukki’s legs…

Feeling a sudden surge of panic, he shot a glance to the other side of the room, where Tsukki was still pretty much unconscious and laying like a dead man on his bead. Slightly relieved that he didn’t have to deal with the next morning awkwardness right away, he slowly rose up from his bead to avoid disturbing his already throbbing head and went to the bathroom so he could freak out without waking up Tsukki.

When he walked into the bathroom he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He looked like absolute garbage, not that it was surprising, though. His hair was sticking up in every possible direction and his hair tie was still clinging for dear life to a lock at the back of his head, his eyes were a bit red and surrounded by two terrifyingly deep dark circles. All in all, a very standard got-pissed-drunk-and-did-things-I-know-regret look. Fitting.

He took off his T-shirt and underwear, his pants were already lying somewhere in the floor of their room, and hopped into the shower hoping the warm water would clear his head.

It did not. The picture of Tsukki sleeping peacefully on his bed at the other side of the door kept popping up in his mind. How was he going to face him when he woke up? What was he going to say? What was Tsukki going to say?

There was a very real possibility that their relationship was damaged beyond repair now, having drunken sex with a close friend was usually a mistake, after all. It didn’t seem like that to Yamaguchi last night, his stupid, intoxicated, uncaring, stupid brain just thought of the immediate pleasure and didn’t even consider the consequences of it. He should have known better, Tsukki had asked him for help with this whole boyfriend act and he had found a way to turn it around to benefit him. He had taken Tsukki’s careful touches and nice words and turned it into something that surpassed every boundarie. Sure, Tsukki had reciprocated too but what if he had been more drunk than Yamaguchi thought at the moment? What if he didn’t want anything to do with Yamaguchi now? What if he asked him to move out of the room?

Yamaguchi had spent so much time hiding his crush to keep it from interfering with his relationship with Tsukki and he had managed to screw up that effort of years in a single night. Fucking amazing. 

His shower took a lot longer than usual, as he dreaded the moment he put a foot outside the bathroom and had to face Tsukki. 

Finally, he grabbed a towel and dried himself off. He realized he hadn’t brought any clean clothes with him which meant he was not only probably about to have the most horrible conversation of his life, but he was also about to have it while naked. Things just kept on getting better. 

Hopefully, there was some meteor two minutes away from crashing directly on the dorm and kill him instantly.

With the towel tied around his waist, he grabbed the door handle and took a deep breath before walking out. 

Tsukki was still sleeping.

Yamaguchi let out a sigh of relief and went straight to put some clothes on, but as he was rummaging his drawers for an old t-shirt to wear he heard a miserable groan coming from the bed.

Yamaguchi’s breathing stopped dead and he went perfectly still, as if Tsukki was some kind of dinosaur that could only see him if he moved. Which, sadly, wasn’t the case.

“What time is it?” came Tsukki’s hoarse voice from behind him.

Yamaguchi turned around slowly “Around 1 pm” he said.

Tsukki’s head fell back on the bed and he rubbed at his stinging eyes “Shit, my head's killing me” he muttered.

Yamaguchi was still standing in front of his wardrobe, in his underwear, waiting for Tsukki to say something else. When it was clear the blond was to busy fighting his migraine to talk, Yamaguchi went back to looking for that damn t-shirt so he could get dressed.

When he was more presentable he sat on his bed to towel his hair dry. 

“I should have listened to Kuroo and stopped with the damn vodka.” Tsukki whined, sill laying down with his arm over his eyes.

Yamaguchi let out a bitter chuckle “The tequila didn’t help, either.”

“Hm?” Tsukishima hummed, lifting his arm a bit to look at Yamaguchi.

“I said the shots we did after didn’t help, either.”

“We did shots?”

Yamaguchi stopped ruffling his hair with the towel for a second to throw a disbelieving look at Tsukki, “You don’t remember?”

Tsukki groaned “I barely remember anything past the fifth cup of vodka. After that everything is in like flashes…” he stared at the ceiling squinting, “Hinata and Kageyama were there or did I dream that?”

“No, they were there.” Yamaguchi replied numbly.

If Tsukki didn’t even remember the shots the he certainly didn’t remember the _event._ Yamaguchi almost cried with relief at the realization, at least his relationship with Tsukki was safe for now, he could just keep as what it had been: a drunken stupid mistake, and move past it. 

But as soon as he had that thought, the other side of his brain screamed at him. What the fuck was he even talking about? They had been making out like crazy in the middle of the party and then left to their room in a rush, making it very clear what was about to happen to everyone watching. And knowing Tsukki’s cousin he would surely make a comment about it the next time he saw them, if only just to annoy Tsukishima. Could Yamaguchi lie his way out of it and say that yes, they had kissed but nothing else happened when they got to the room? Should he even do that? 

Yamaguchi almost physically shook his head at that thought. No, Tsukki deserved to know the truth, Yamaguchi would be a real asshole if he lied to him about something like that. 

But then again, this could mean the end of everything they had right now and Yamaguchi wasn’t ready to face that. It had taken a long time to get where they were now, the first couple months of their friendship, if one could even call it that at the time, had been a bit rocky, with Tsukki giving him the cold shoulder, as he usually did with new people. They had been nothing more than roommates that lived their separate lives, but steadily, they had grown closer, Tsukki letting down the walls he insisted on putting up and letting Yamaguchi in.

The longer they spent together, the more they enjoyed each other’s company, Yamaguchi found Tsukki’s quick wit and sarcastical demeanour hilarious and Tsukishima thought Yamaguchi’s enthusiasm and passion were admirable, even if he wouldn’t admit to it. Slowly, but surely, Yamaguchi started to develop feelings that he couldn’t control, staring a little too long at Tsukki’s skillful hands when he prepared dinner, feeling his chest swell up when he made Tsukki chuckle with one of his jokes, admiring Tsukki from afar as he harbored these feelings with no clue what to do with them. 

He couldn't let all of this go to waste.

The creaking of the bed on the other side of the room took him out of his silent spiral of panic, “I’m gonna take a shower” Tsukki said as he lifted clumsily from the bed, “I feel fucking gross.”

Yamaguchi was left to sit alone on his bed staring at nothing while he heard the splash of the water against their shower plate. He was starting to suffocate in this room, in Tsukki’s presence. He agitatedly looked around the room, desperate for something to do and keep his head occupied, at least until he figured out what the fuck he was going to do with this situation.

His gaze fell upon a pile of dirty clothes he had accumulated over last few days in the corner of the room. That’d do. 

He got up from his bed and threw all his laundry in a big bag, before walking down to dorm’s laundry room. 

The first two washing machines were already being used so he went for the third one in the line and started pushing his clothes into its drum. One of his socks fell from his hand and onto the tiles, wet with the residual water that was coming out of one of the old washing machines. He quickly took it so it wouldn’t soak in all the dirty water and looked at it with a disgusted face. With a sigh, he threw into the machine along with everything else.

Once the washing machine was working, he leaned his weight against it, his arms crossed over his chest. Should he go back? Tsukki was probably done with his shower by now. He despised the thought of going back, though, he felt way too uncomfortable around Tsukki now. 

It probably wouldn’t be too weird for him to wait around the laundry room until his clothes were ready, which would take probably around an hour, he knew people did it all the time, although he had always been the type to leave the machine running and go back to his room to do something else. 

He decided he would rather spend as less time as possible with Tsukki right now, at least while the both of them were still hangover and cranky, so he sat on a stray plastic chair, pulled up his phone and started scrolling through twitter.

It wasn’t too long before his eyes were staring at the screen but not seeing anything, his mind quickly drifting to what had made him hide in the laundry room in the first place. 

He kept going back to that moment in the party when Tsukki had suggested going back to their room, did he not remember that? Tsukki had said he had flashes of the last part of the night, not that he didn’t remember anything at all. Maybe he did remember about them fucking on his bed, he just hadn’t said anything, just like Yamaguchi. Which made it all the worst because that meant that Tsukishima’s brain was currently ruminating on it, but he wouldn’t mention it until he was completely sure about what he wanted to say about it, so Yamaguchi would have to live in fear of that moment until it came.

Because there was no way in hell he was going to bring it up first.

Call him a coward if you will but he was positively terrified about this whole situation. But, mostly, he felt stupid. Stupid, and reckless and full of regret, specifically. Stupid because he had put himself in this situation in the first place, not just the hooking up thing, but also the fake boyfriend thing. He had been warned over and over again by his friends to keep his cool and not get carried away to avoid a mess. And what had he done? He got pissed drunk, carried away and made a huge, huge mess. 

And the worst thing is that there was still a tiny, miniscule, infinitesimal part of his brain that was squealing in joy at the thought of what had happened. That he and his crush had basically sprinted from friends to third base in the course of one night. That small part of him couldn’t help but go over each one of Tsukki’s affection displays of the past days and desperately think they could mean _something._ That those glances, those touches, those words had been too sincere and genuine to just be part of a performance.

But then again, he tried to ignore that part of his brain and keep it as isolated as possible because he knew that the higher he flew the more crushing and devastating the fall would be. 

He was yanked out of his trance by two voices approaching from the hallway and soon enough Bokuto and Akaashi were walking through the door, chatting animatedly.

Akaashi was the first one to notice him sitting there as Bokuto was doing most of the talking, “Hello, Yamaguchi-kun”, he said with a slight nod.

When Bokuto saw him a huge grin formed on his lips “Hey! How’s that hangover treating ya?” he joked while he opened the drum of one of the washing machines that had been working when Yamaguchi got there, Akaashi crouched down in front of the other one with a plastic basket.

“I feel every heartbeat in my temples but other than that good, I guess” Yamaguchi joked back, hoping they wouldn’t notice the pity-party mood he was in just two seconds ago.

Bokuto laughed loudly and his hair fell on top of his right eye, he looked very weird with his hair down like that, but after all it was a lazy sunday so it wasn’t surprising that he had opted for not gelling it up.

While the pair retrieved their clothes from the washing machines and put them in order Yamaguchi realized that he was sitting in a plastic chair, in the middle of the laundry room, completely alone. He probably look a bit weird to say the least, even if they Bokuto and Akaashi had been polite enough to not comment on it. 

Suddenly feeling self-conscious, he decided he would rather not wait awkwardly while they finished separating their clothes and throwing everything into the dryer so he stood up.

“Well, I’m going back to my room, see you guys around” he said trying to come off as natural as possible as he walked out.

“Alright, man, see you around” Bokuto said with a smile.

“Bye, Yamaguchi-kun” answered Akaashi.

Yamaguchi was almost in the first floor and thinking about where could he go other than his room now that the laundry room wasn’t an option, when he realized he had forgotten his detergent and his bag. 

With a puff he turned on his heels and went back to get them, but when he was two steps away from the laundry room’s door he heard Bokuto’s strident voice coming from inside.

“...totally not expecting that.”

“Me neither, really” Akaashi’s voice said.

“Right? I had always assumed that Tsukki had a crush on Kuroo.” Bokuto replied.

“It really did look like it. And I think Kuroo thought so too, he must have been a little disappointed last night.” Said Akaashi with a thoughtful hum.

“Aw, man, I shipped it!” It sounded like Bokuto was pouting.

“But Tsukishima and Yamaguchi-kun make a nice couple.” Retorted Akaashi.

“Yeah, totally, totally, I’m just saying! We need to find to find someone for poor, lonely Tetsu now.” Bokuto declared resolutely. 

The air over Yamaguchi’s head and shoulders suddenly turned 4 tonnes heavier. His eyes were stuck to a stain on the wall and he only realized he had stopped breathing when he heard Akaashi and Bokuto move around in the laundry room, probably about to come out and find him standing there like an idiot. 

Hastily, he ran back up the stairs but instead of walking up the next flight he ran to the street. Only when he was outside, in front of the bakery next to the dorm, he remembered to check if he had his keys with him. He had them, along with his phone and, even if it was with a clearly old and raggedy t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, he was totally dressed.

He unlocked his phone and sent a message to the group chat he had with Yachi and Inuoka.

**_Yams:_ ** _guys_

 **_Yams:_ ** _can we meet now?_

 **_Yams:_ ** _please guys answer i can’t go back to my room right now and i need to talk to you_

**_Hitokaヽ(＾Д＾)ﾉ:_ ** _Sure, I’m at home with Kiyoko, you can come over_

 **_Hitokaヽ(＾Д＾)ﾉ:_ ** _But what happened?? Are you ok???_

**_Yams:_ ** _not really i’ll tell you guys everything at your place_

**_Hitokaヽ(＾Д＾)ﾉ:_ ** _Yamaguchi, you’re really scaring me ;;_

**_Yams:_ ** _it’s fine it’s not that serious i’m just a mess right now_

 **_Yams:_ ** _don’t worry_

**_Shiba-Inu(oka):_ ** _shit sorry I just read this I’m coming over too_

* * *

  
  


The couches at Kiyoko’s apartment were super comfortable. It was something that Inuoka and Yamaguchi had used as a pro back when Yachi freaked out about Kiyoko asking her if she wanted to move in with her and Yachi in return had just given a panic-induced, incoherent answer before calling her friends for advice, which had left Yamaguchi and Inuoka with the task of making up her mind for her and ultimately make a pros-cons list to convince her that it was a good idea to move in with her perfect girlfriend.

Said perfect girlfriend was currently in the kitchen making tea for Yachi and her distressed friends who were sitting in the living room. 

“So what happened, Yamaguchi? You’re keeping us in suspense!” exclaimed Inuoka.

Yamaguchi sighed and rubbed his hands over his face while his left leg bounced uncontrollably, an old nervous habit he had been trying to get over but came back every once in a while.

“It’s about the Tsukki situation.” He said.

“What did he do?” Asked Inuoka with a defensive tone, it was curious how he was usually all smiles and good-natured attitude but could turn uncharacteristically dark to defend a friend.

“Did something go wrong?” Yachi asked worried, placing her hand on Yamaguchi’s right knee. 

Yamaguchi let out all of the air in his lungs in a big exhale as he leaned back in the sofa. 

“Kind of.” He said. He passed his hand through his hair as he looked for the words to say. “Things happened that I haven’t told you about.”

“Please, stop being so cryptic or I’ll die of stress over here!” Inuoka cried out.

Yamaguchi sighed, “We went to a party at the dorms last night because his cousin invited us. We drank a lot and… Things _happened_.”

“What kind of things?” Inquired Yachi.

“Sexual things.” Yamaguchi muttered his eyes fixed on the bookshelf in front of him as he felt his ears go red. He heard Yachi gasp.

“But… Sexual things as in a little heavy petting or as in full-on sex?” Inuoka insisted.

Yamaguchi clicked his tongue “I gave him a blowjob, is that what you wanna hear?” He exclaimed exasperated just as Kiyoko walked in holding a tray with their tea. She lifted her eyebrows at Yamaguchi’s phrase.

“Holy shit.” Said Inuoka.

Yamaguchi groaned and grabbed a cushion to bury his face on it. Hopefully it wouldn’t burn up in flames when it came in contact with his scalding hot cheeks.

“Okay,” Yachi cleared her throat, “is that why you’re so upset?”

“Yes” came Yamaguchi’s voice muffled by the cushion, “No. I don’t know.” He lifted his head, “It’s not that it was bad, it wasn’t” he said bashfully, purposefully ignoring how the corner of Inuoka’s mouth twitched in a smile when he said it, “it’s just that it was stupid, you know? I woke up this morning and it all just seemed like a huge, dumb mistake. I was drunk and I screwed up.”

“You were both drunk, though, right?” Retorted Inuoka.

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t force yourself on him or anything like that.” 

“Jesus, no! Who the fuck do you think am I?!” Yamaguchi cried alarmed.

“Then what’s the problem? It was just two consenting adults, who are attracted to each other, having some fun after a party.”

“The problem” Yamaguchi said, “is that we were really drunk. I remember more or less everything, but he doesn’t, he told me this morning that after some point all he has is flashes of memories of the night. So he doesn’t remember what happened, at least not completely. So if he was drunk enough to forget it how can I know that what happened wasn’t entirely due to the alcohol? People do all sorts of things they regret when they’re drunk, what if this is one of them?”

“Do you regret it?” Asked Yachi carefully.

“Yes! Because if this is a mistake to Tsukki there’s no telling what his reaction will be when he remembers or finds out. Because he will, eventually. Plenty of people saw us kissing at the party so it’s only a matter of time someone comments something to him and he puts two and two together!” He has now retorted to explain his feelings to the cushion as he plays with the fringes on its corner, “Also, I don’t think I should keep it from him either, even if he doesn’t remember I’d feel shitty if I kept this to myself, it’s a pretty big deal.” He sighed for the twentieth time, “but at the same time I’m just terrified of him cutting me off immediately afterwards because we made things weird.” He pulled on one of the threads “I’m just… Everything is a mess now.” He finished quietly.

A heavy silence fell in the room as Yachi and Inuoka looked at each other with concerned expressions and Kiyoko rummaged through the kitchen to make it look like he wasn’t listening in to their conversation. 

“I think” Yachi finally started, “that you are seeing this in a very negative light.” She was holding her teacup with her both hands while it rested on her knees, in a position that you would expect to find in a sweet old lady more than a college student. “So you guys were drunk, alright. Alcohol does make people do reckless things, but you know Tsukishima. He is very calculated and meticulous and I really don’t think he would ever say or do something he doesn’t mean, even if he was drunk.” She passed her thumb over the edge of the cup, “I think that, even if he wouldn’t have been uninhibited enough to make out with you if he had been sober, what happened is a sign that he is at least attracted to you.” She chose her words carefully, trying to make Yamaguchi feel better but also not wanting to get his hopes up too much.

Yamaguchi sat silently while he thought about Yachi’s words. He wanted to believe her but he couldn’t…

“There’s something else…” he said in a quiet voice.

“More?? Yamaguchi we saw each other like three days ago, your life is so intense!” Inuoka commented.

Yamaguchi ignored him, “You know Tsukki’s friends? The older ones. I think I’ve told you about them.”

“The terrifying ones?” Yachi asked.

Yamaguchi huffed out a little laugh at that, “Yes, the terrifying ones.”

“I don’t know who you’re talking about.” Inuoka said.

“You don’t know Kuroo? Tall, black disheveled hair, always looks smug for some reason. He’s doing a master’s degree at the chemistry department. Bokuto and Akaashi I’m not sure what they’re studying but they’re always together, you must have seen them around campus, a loud beefy guy with spiky hair and a pretty one that’s always drinking coffee.” Yamaguchi explained.

“Ohhh, right, yeah, I think I know who you’re talking about. I’ve seen Kuroo around the sciences building.”

“Right, so, they’re Tsukki’s friends.” Yachi and Inuoka nodded, “I’ve met Kuroo a few times before and I’d heard about the other two but I met them personally yesterday at the party. Whatever,” he did a dismissive gesture with his hand, “the thing is that earlier today, I was freaking out about what I just told you while Tsukki was in the shower so I decided to do the laundry.” His friends listen attentively to his story waiting to see where it went, “I walked into Bokuto and Akaashi in the laundry room, and then I was going back to my room but I realized that I had left the detergent and the bag, so I went back to the laundry room and accidentally heard a conversation they were having inside.” Yamaguchi felt a lump in his throat just at the thought of Bokuto and Akaashi’s words. 

Yachi and Inuoka’s eyes on him encouraged him to go on.

“They were saying that they were surprised that Tsukki and I were together because they had always assumed Tsukki had a crush on Kuroo. Apparently it was so obvious that even Kuroo himself thought so too.” Yamaguchi could feel the pitiful looks his friends were giving him but he didn’t want to see them.

It really took them by surprise because after a couple seconds no one had said anything and Yamaguchi felt the need to go on, “And it makes sense, you know? They spend a lot of time together, they’re really close, they have similar personalities, it’s not surprising that people would think they make a good couple.” Yamaguchi swallowed around the growing lump, “Kuroo is a cool guy, and smart, he has the kind of dry humour Tsukki likes, so it wouldn’t be weird if Tsukki…” _fell for someone like him and not someone like me_. He let out a shaky breath and bit his lip, gripping the cushion once again in an effort to ground himself.

Yachi and Inuoka exchanged a nervous glance. In the end it was Inuoka who decided to say something. “Has Tsukki ever told you something about that? I feel like you would be the first one to know if he had crush on someone. You guys are like, best friends, after all.” He pointed out.

Yamaguchi shook his head and looked at him, “No, but he’s so private with this kinds of things. I don’t even know if he’s ever dated anyone.” He was torned between the hopeful part of his brain, telling him that Inuoka was right and that Tsukki would have told him if he liked someone; and the masochist part of his brain going over every single laugh, knowing smile and gaze he had seen Kuroo and Tsukki share. He had never really noticed but after hearing Bokuto and Akaashi, the more he thought about it, the more sense it made to him that those two would like each other as something more than friends. 

That would leave Yamaguchi as the guy with the two-year-long crush who was left to swallow his feelings and support his friend from the sidelines as said friend pursued a relationship with the man of his dreams. 

And Yamaguchi would, of course, be the supportive friend if he had to. He was happy to, that’s what he had always been and removing Tsukki from his life was absolutely not an option, after all. But that didn’t mean it hurt any less. 

Yachi took a slow sip from her tea, Yamaguchi and Inuoka’s were still on the tray, getting colder by the minute, “You should… Talk to him.” She advised giving him a sympathetic look, “The more you wait, the worse you’re going to feel. About Kuroo, about last night… About everything. When’s the wedding?”

“Tomorrow.”

Yachi made a face and took another sip, Inuoka just let out a huff.

“I know.” Moaned Yamaguchi as he rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes. “You’re right.” He declared, plopping back on the couch, “I should talk to him. I’ll do it after the wedding, though. If I do it today I think I’m gonna die.” His head still hurt after all, his hangover wasn’t gone and he was sure Tsukki’s wasn’t either. 

“It’s for the best.” Inuoka said.

“I know.” Yamaguchi said again. “It’s also scary as fuck.” He added with a sigh.

Inuoka laughed lowly at that, “Serves you right for having feelings.”

Yamaguchi chuckled and gave him the finger “Shut up.” Inuoka blew him a kiss and Yachi giggled at their exchange.

With the atmosphere a little more relaxed, Inuoka added with a soft voice, “For real, though, however it goes, you know where we are.” Yachi nodded her agreement enthusiastically.

Yamaguchi gave them a warm smile “Thanks guys, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

* * *

It was already dark outside when Yamaguchi came back to the dorms. He found Tsukishima sitting at his desk, with his feet on the chair and hugging his knees, staring at his laptop that was resting on top of a pile of textbooks. The rest of the desk was occupied by stray notes and papers, revealing how Tsukki probably had been trying to study but had ended up giving up. 

He was wearing his headphones and didn’t turn to the door when Yamaguchi walked in. 

“Hey” Yamaguchi greeted him as he walked over to the fridge to get a glass of water.

“Hey” repeated Tsukki, finally tearing his eyes from the screen. Yamaguchi drank his water with his back facing Tsukki, trying to give off every possible sign that would make Tsukki give up any intention he could have of starting a conversation, if any. It didn’t work. 

“Where have you been?” Tsukki asked. 

Yamaguchi left his glass in the sink before turning around to reply. “At Yachi’s.”

Tsukki hummed, apparently satisfied with his answer, his eyes turned back to the screen, “Did you eat there?” he questioned.

Yamaguchi frowned for a second. Eating. He hadn’t had anything at Yachi’s house, he had been feeling too anxious, and he hadn’t eaten anything this morning either, as he woke up already nervous and had hurried to busy himself with laundry...

“My laundry!” Yamaguchi cried out as he picked up the keys from where he had left them on the table just seconds ago.

“What about it?”

“It’s been in the washing machine for like, four hours!” He hurriedly replied before he closed the room behind himself and ran downstairs to collect his clothes that surely stank of humidity by now, leaving behind a mildly confused Tsukki.

Thankfully, his bag and detergent were still also in the laundry room. He put his already dry and extremely wrinkly clothes in the bag and took it upstairs. He would have to iron them now and his iron was an old thing his mother had given him when he moved out so it would take him ages to do it. He decided he wasn’t in the mood to fight an electrical appliance tonight and that future Yamaguchi could worry about it. 

When he walked through the door for a second time, Tsukki did look at him; with an eyebrow raised. “You forgot to take it out before going to Yachi’s?”

Yamaguchi just hummed his confirmation, he was exhausted and he really didn’t want to have to explain what had distracted him from his laundry earlier.

Tsukki watched as Yamaguchi left the bag with his now smelly clothes on the floor by his bed and he flopped onto it face down. 

“You didn’t answer my question.” Tsukki said, he still hadn’t moved from the position Yamaguchi had found him in the first time, “Did you already eat? I was thinking of ordering take out.”

The mention of food brought Yamaguchi back to the living, even if just a little bit and he turned his head to rest on his cheek and look at Tsukki, “I didn’t, let’s order something.”

The food did make Yamaguchi feel a little better, as the scene of having dinner with Tsukki on their tiny table in a comfortable silence was familiar enough to calm his nerves. 

“How’s your hangover?” Tsukki must have noticed Yamaguchi was uncharacteristically quiet, as he had taken it upon himself to start the conversation not once, but twice already. 

Yamaguchi let out a huff, “My tongue stopped feeling like a dirty rag a couple hours after I woke up, so that’s good” he ate a tuna roll before continuing, “Been feeling pretty shitty the entire day, though.”

Tsukki nodded with a light sigh, “I’ve been trying to study but I had to leave it because my brain wasn’t cooperating. It’s incredible how every time I’m hangover I say next time I’ll dial it back with the drinks but it just keeps happening.” He moved around a california roll on his plate.

“You don’t really drink that often. Maybe you just forget your last hangover it every time.” Yamaguchi supplied.

Tsukki looked at him before giving him a quick raise of his eyebrows, “yeah, I guess that could be it.” His eyes drifted to a point over Yamaguchi’s shoulder and he looked deep in thought, or maybe just spaced out for a few seconds. “Hopefully, we’ll feel better tomorrow. We spent too much money on those suits to look like we’re dying.” He finally said. 

Yamaguchi let out a small huff that resembled a laugh, his gaze focused on his plate, “Right.”

They ate in silence for a few more minutes, both lost in their own heads. As they were cleaning up Tsukki glanced up at Yamaguchi, “Are you feeling okay?” he asked with a careful tone. 

Yamaguchi nodded and smiled at him with the most genuine smile he could muster, “Yeah, Tsukki, I’m just tired.”

Tsukki took a quick look at his watch “It’s still kind of early but I could also use some sleep. This migraine is not going to get any better.”

Not even ten minutes later, they were both in their pajamas and already laying in bed, the only light in the room being the one coming from Tsukki’s bedside lamp. Yamaguchi let out a yawn as he got comfortable. “Good night, Tsukki.”

“Good night, Yamaguchi”, and the room went dark. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I know this was mostly Yamaguchi freaking out and little YamaTsukki interactions but it had to be this way, I promise. The wedding is coming! We only have one chapter, maybe two left; I'll try to post it next week but my online finals are coming up so please bear with me! As always thank you for reading and for your support <3

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This is the first fic I've written in a long, long time so I'm excited about being back in bussiness. Thank you so much for reading the first chapter, I'd love it if you told me what you think in the comments.  
> See you in the next one!


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